Andrew Griffith is the Member of Parliament for Arundel & South Downs and Shadow Secretary of State for Science and Technology.
It is shameful that the Government is giving away our sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. It threatens Western security by abandoning a key strategic territory to an ally of China, it emboldens those who have their eyes on Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, and it leaves the Chagossian people in the dark about their future.
But it is about more than that: our natural world is at risk as well. The Chagos Islands, currently encompassed by the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), are a priceless and pristine part of the world, unspoiled by exploitation, and home to many of nature’s wonders.
The islands themselves may be small, but the territorial waters we are surrendering makeup 640,000 square kilometres of pristine ocean – an area about the same size as France. These waters are home to the Great Chagos Bank, the largest coral atoll in the world, and hundreds of different species of fish, sharks, birds, crabs, and dolphins.
Recognising the Chagos Islands as a global biodiversity hotspot, the UK has taken sustained action to protect them from exploitation. The Blue Belt, which was the previous Conservative government’s flagship policy for protecting the oceans around the UK’s overseas territories, includes the waters around the Chagos Islands. This is not just a line on a map – it is the largest protected area of its kind in the world and is monitored and enforced to the highest standards to prevent the likes of China from exploiting our world’s natural beauty.
Can we be confident that Mauritius, which lies over 1,000 miles away, has no functioning navy, and is cosying up to China, will protect this oasis of nature? Indeed, Mauritius opposed the UK’s decision to establish marine protections around the islands in the first place. After so much good work by the UK, we cannot allow the Chinese fishing fleet to exploit these fragile waters.
The Labour government needs to realise that protecting the environment is not something achieved by grand speeches or through ambiguous rhetoric in manifestos but by real action. And this action is only made possible by the exercise of British sovereignty – something that ministers are now proposing to give up. No amount of hand-wringing about the importance of protecting and restoring our natural world will make up for the decision to give away the power to do it.
This matters closer to home too. Earlier this year, the previous Conservative government took the right decision to harness our Brexit freedoms and close our terrestrial waters to ban Sandeel fishing and ban bottom trawling in some marine protected areas.
These measures help to protect our domestic marine environment from damage by EU vessels. Sandeels are a vital food source for rare and threatened British seabirds like puffins and kittiwakes, whereas bottom trawling releases tonnes of CO2 and damages the seabed. Thanks to Conservative action, our depleted marine wildlife is now better able to recover.
Labour ministers are faced with a simple decision of whether to protect the environment and hold firm on these measures, which unite a broad coalition of voters, British fishermen, and charities like the RSPB. But will they?
Again, there are reasons to be doubtful.
The EU is furious with the UK’s decision and is, for the first time, taking us to court for a breach of the post-Brexit trade agreement. Danish and French fishing interests are particularly impacted by the new restrictions, and the EU is pushing hard for a reverse. The Government, determined to ‘reset’ the UK’s relationship with the EU, will come under huge pressure to change course to win concessions from Brussels on other areas.
Labour ministers talk a good game on saving British nature, but they now have to stand firm and match their words with actions. As an independent nation, we have every right to decide what happens in our territorial waters, for the sake of both the environment and our fishing communities. The Government must make clear to the EU that we are exercising our clear rights to protect our own sovereign waters.
When it comes to the environment, sovereignty is not an abstract concept. Thanks to the actions of successive Conservative governments, the marine environment is better protected and able to withstand threats. Ministers should remember that warm words mean nothing if they are prepared to trade away our hard-won environmental successes in the face of international pressure. From the North Sea to the Indian Ocean, we must remember our duty to defend British sovereignty.
