Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

3rd reading
Monday 12th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Weir of Ballyholme (DUP)]

My Lords, I join with others in welcoming the robust yet civilised and courteous way in which this legislation has been debated. Obviously, at Third Reading, it is not appropriate to regurgitate all the arguments. However, given the significance of the Bill, it is also the case that it merits some level of, albeit brief, comment. While we have gone through this process, and I welcome the amendments that have been tabled to the Bill, they cannot render acceptable what is totally unacceptable.

We are still left with a Bill that is bad for the United Kingdom. We are not simply handing over sovereignty to Mauritius; we are paying it an expensive dowry to take over what has been British sovereign territory for 200 years.

From a defence point of view, we are left with a flawed situation. Rather than perhaps the jewel in the crown, we are left with a situation where, despite the assurances that have been given, we know, from a practical point of view, that we will see Mauritius in effect leasing out, in either official or unofficial form, to foreign powers—particularly the Chinese Government—surrounding islands. So, instead of a jewel in the crown, we will be left with a military base with a noose around it, ever tightening as time moves on.

In particular, even with the amendments, we have not dealt with the situation as regards our debt and duty to the Chagossians themselves. We have been left in a situation in which they have been denied complete access to the islands. They have no right of full self-return. More importantly, they have also been left without the right of self-determination.

This House has been united, as we saw a few moments ago, in rightly condemning what has been happening in Iran and supporting the Iranian people in their right of self-determination. This House, on a number of occasions, has utterly condemned the invasion of Ukraine and supported the right of Ukrainians to decide their own future. Similarly, I suspect that this House would be united in saying that the Greenlanders have the right to determine their own future and that it should not be imposed from the United States or anywhere else. The thread that runs through all three of these situations is the right of self-determination and democracy. That is the golden thread to which should be standing.

Yet, we are in a situation, as regards the Chagossians, that this can apply elsewhere in the world but, shamefully, not to the people who have actually looked to us to deliver for them. If we simply let this go through and the Government let this go through unaltered, we will lack the moral or political authority to dictate elsewhere in the world on the issue of self-determination. So I support the regret amendment in the perhaps vain hope that, by sending a signal today, we can at least say to the Government, “Think again before it is entirely too late”.

[Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I very much support the amendment of regret and I am pleased it has been tabled. I find the word “regret” not nearly strong enough, because for me this will be a very sad day if the Bill goes through from the House of Lords to the other place.