Tory Circular Firing Squad Over Chagos Blames Cleverly for Sovereignty Giveaway
Eyebrows have been raised very high across SW1 after James Cleverly tweeted that Labour’s decision to give away Chagos was “weak, weak, weak.” Probably should have left this one James…
Tugendhat’s campaign has gone in for Cleverly thanks to the fact that he kicked off the handover negotiation: “Labour’s decision to push forward the deal negotiated by James Cleverly to give up the Chagos Islands has raised questions about the government’s commitment to the Falkland Islands.” Another campaign source tells Guido: “James has some cheek criticising this decision. He’s the one who wanted this deal. Others such as Tom as security minister opposed this – they would never sell our country down the river. It’s shameful to claim otherwise.” Yellow cards out everyone…
A Foreign Office source closely familiar with negotiations under the Tories tells Guido in no uncertain terms:
“Surrendering sovereignty of the Chagos Islands was a policy that James himself came up with as Foreign Secretary. He decided that they should go to Mauritius. He opened negotiations. And he ignored voices from the White House and our own government when they warned that it would be a serious threat to UK security interests. The only reason that this didn’t happen on his watch is because David Cameron put a stop to it. For him to now criticise Labour for weakness is laughable.”
Meanwhile a Tory insider tells Guido:
“No one can quite work out why Clev’s tweeted. Everybody knew he’d started this surrender as Foreign Sec and it took Cameron to stop it, yet he’s calling Labour ‘weak’?! The shine has come off that conference act quickly.”
And after such a good day yesterday…
