Likely incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham is minded to try to complete Labour’s doomed Chagos Islands giveaway – the foreign policy blunder that played a substantial role in the downfall of Keir Starmer’s premiership. The change of Labour leader presented an opportunity to drop the deal for good…
According to multiple sources who are familiar with Burnham’s thinking, he has been heavily influenced by Starmer’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, whom he intends to keep in role initially. Powell referred to Britain’s vital strategic territory as “very tiny islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean where no one actually goes”…
Powell’s personal commitment to the deal is absolute. Guido has exposed Powell’s longstanding proximity to China and fanaticism with completing the giveaway at all costs. Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, the other main advocate of the deal under Starmer, is thought to be leaving government. It’s all up to Powell now…
Continuation of Starmer’s Chagos policy by Burnham will enrage the Trump White House and derail Burnham’s wider attempt to reset relations with Washington. The President humiliated Starmer over the botched deal, publicly withdrawing US support and ultimately forcing the UK to ice the plan. Trump described Burnham has “extremely liberal” last month. Wait until he hears about Burnham’s plan to revive Chagos, which Guido understands the President is set to receive a briefing on shortly…
Keeping Starmer’s Chagos policy will also blow Burnham’s balance sheet. Guido already established that Burnham’s spending commitments so far total something like 250 billion pounds – much of that formally uncosted. You can add another £47 billion to that then – the estimate of the cost of the Chagos deal alone…
The Diego Garcia Bill was not reintroduced at the last King’s Speech after a massive parliamentary campaign to halt Starmer’s giveaway. Co-conspirators helped remove one Labour Prime Minister over Chagos, looks like it’s time to do it all over again…
Badenoch said at her speech on Monday morning: “We are absolutely ready to fight a general election. We saw the results in Aberdeen South: 50% of the vote. Because we can unite the country… It’s about uniting the country, for God’s sake, behind a centre-right agenda.”