Lord Blencathra is President of Conservative Friends of Overseas Territories.
Labour’s approach and policy towards the British Overseas Territories is in chaos.
In just over one hundred days since assuming office, Labour has managed to traduce and damage these carefully crafted relationships built over decades and based on mutual trust and respect.
Its actions have been grounded not in safeguarding and nurturing these ties but on short term expediency and the advice of government lawyers more concerned to acquiescence to highly political elements within the UN and International Court of Justice.
Without any critical challenge, Labour has accepted this approach hook, line and sinker. It indicates that once again there is a pervasive group think within the Foreign Office ashamed to stand up for and protect British interests and those of the Overseas Territories. Such an attitude will have far reaching and strategically damaging consequences.
First, Labour announced that it will surrender the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, a country without any legitimate claim. The negative impact that this will have has been well documented including on the Chagossian community, boosting the threat from other state actors and to the marine conservation zone surrounding the islands, one of the largest in the world, from intensive fishing and other exploitation.
The former Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, made clear that he would not have signed off on such a deal.
Dr Jack Watling of the respected Royal United Services Institute think-tank commented “The UK has ceded strategic ground when it did not have to and received nothing in return. It has done so in a manner that is not aligned with a wider strategy. It has also invited competitors to apply pressure elsewhere, while diminishing the security of a strategic base. This is nothing short of self-harm.”
The Chagos deal is being expedited ahead of both Mauritian and US elections, that in itself tells a story, whilst Parliament has still to see let alone scrutinise the details of this sell out. Now we learn that to assist with this deal the Government will ship Tamil asylum seekers from Chagos to St Helena, a British territory some 5,000 miles away in the mid-Atlantic.
This tiny island community of just over 4,300 people does not have the resources or infrastructure to accommodate asylum seekers and where public services are already severely stretched.
The way that this was done, again, also points to a disregard and arrogance in Labour’s approach. This was stitched up by officials in the Foreign Office with no consultation with the people of St Helena or its Legislative Council that has left the island community feeling shocked, angered and ignored.
What Labour doesn’t seem to understand is that such decisions have wider repercussions as others use the opportunity to test and exploit such weaknesses. Actions in respect to one overseas territory will have consequences for others.
Surrendering the Chagos sets a precedent that may well undermine the sovereign UK bases on Cyprus. And already we’ve seen renewed sabre rattling from Buenos Aires over the Falklands whilst Spain recently reimposed a hard border, albeit temporarily, with Gibraltar at a time when there are continued sensitive negotiations with Madrid and the EU over its post Brexit future.
It was noticeable that the Governor of the Falklands and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar both had to seek and then issue public assurances that the UK was fully committed to safeguarding their interests. Perhaps this is unsurprising when actions speak louder than words, but it is a damning indictment on how the Government is viewed and whether its word can actually be trusted.
Labour needs to get a grip and swiftly.
It needs to rethink its decision on the Chagos Islands and drop the impractical and arrogant decision to impose asylum seekers on St Helena.
Its actions are causing alarm and uncertainty in the Overseas Territories. This is not how we should be acting. We must respect and cherish these relations, not diminish and disrespect them. Our obligations and duties to fellow members of the British family should be clear to see and beyond reproach.
At present, by any measure, Labour is failing that test.
