UK Chagos Negotiator: We Shouldn’t Be Worried About Losing ‘Very Tiny Islands’
As the fallout continues over Labour’s immediate cession of the Chagos Islands to China-aligned Mauritius, special envoy for the negotiations Jonathan Powell has revealed the depth of the strategic thinking behind the decision on Times Radio this morning:
“These are very tiny islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean where no one actually goes. So I don’t think we should be too worried about losing that bit of territory. We’re probably losing more to tidal erosion in the East Coast than that.”
As everyone on Twitter has pointed out it was Powell who Blair told: “We mustn’t lose any more territory” after the 1997 Hong Kong deal. That agreement also included a “guarantee” over the use of the territory – see how that went…
Meanwhile a spokesman for Liz Truss said bizarrely last night: “It was Boris Johnson who asked Liz to talk to Prime Minister Jugnauth about this at COP26, which she did.” After which came the sheepish addition that “for the avoidance of doubt, Boris was not in favour of ceding the territory either and anyone interpreting what I said as suggesting he was is making mischief…”
