Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I do not know of any treaty that can be rewritten unilaterally. As for the words of my honourable friend Stephen Doughty, I will let him know that this House considers its role as a revising Chamber to be very serious. I know that the vast majority of Members of this House, on all sides, see that as their job. We will continue to do that to a very high standard, in the way that this House has always done.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister appears to be in a parallel universe. Can she comment on what the President of the United States, Scott Bessent and Marco Rubio said last week? Is it not perfectly obvious that they are not going to agree to amend the 1966 treaty?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I do not know about it being perfectly obvious. There were many things said last week that it is probably best we do not treat as emblematic or representative of the nature of the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. We continue to have detailed conversations about this particular treaty and many other issues, as we can all remember talking about recently.