UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Monday 30th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, I happily join in congratulating the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Prentis, on a remarkable maiden speech, and I express sadness at seeing the departure of her father, who is a good friend; indeed, our late wives were very close friends in the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship. So it is with sadness that we bid goodbye to a remarkable parliamentarian in the noble Lord, Lord Boswell.

No agreement is perfect and, of course, there are proper concerns about this agreement which have been expressed by many colleagues this evening, but there is no way in which the Opposition Front Bench can plausibly express those concerns. I join the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, in saying that, after 11 rounds of negotiation and after the clear Statement made by Sir James Cleverly, it was as clear as possible that, had there not been a general election, the Conservative Government would have brought forward an agreement similar to the one that we now have, so it is opportunism on stilts for the Conservative Front Bench now to say that they oppose this commitment with such vehemence, just as they did with the agreement on Gibraltar as if knowing the interests of Gibraltar far better than the Chief Minister of Gibraltar.

Having said that, we are told that the Government have abandoned sovereignty. Well, sovereignty was always contested in any event. Of course, that was emphasised by the overwhelming majorities against us: 13 to one in the ICC and 116 to six in the United Nations General Assembly. This shows that, increasingly, we would have lost out in international fora with respect to sovereignty. As it is, by reaching this agreement, we are on the right side of the rule of law, and that will stand us in good stead in the future. We cannot now be accused of hypocrisy.

The Motion refers to the lack of consultation with the Chagossian community. In international law, self-determination means self-determination of the whole unit. We cannot somehow detach the islands from Mauritius for that purpose. It is true that the way the Chagossian community was treated from the late 1960s on is a major blot on our late colonial history, and one we should in every possible way now seek to remedy by, for example, promoting employment opportunities on Diego Garcia and pressing for settlements on the outer islands.

The only hesitation I have in relation to the Chagossians is that many tell us now that they wish to return. Of course, very few of the original Chagossians remain. I fear that there is a sort of nostalgic romanticism about going back home. If they are not working on the base, which I hope a number will, they will somehow be living with very basic infrastructure on the outer islands, living on copra and fishing. Having tasted the good life in the West, I fear that if they do return, many will not stay there for long; many will return to the countries where they are now resident.

On the environment, I share with a number of colleagues the concern about the capability of Mauritius to carry out the degree of protection of the environment that is necessary.

I know that much has been said about national security. It is surely important that the United States, and its current President, is content that its interests are settled by the agreement that has been made. It is hardly surprising that China has been mentioned. The current Government of course accept the benefits that come from China, and there is a small Chinese community of long standing on the island.

It is clear to those who know the island well that, from independence under the Prime Minister’s father, the great founder of the nation, all the Prime Ministers of Mauritius—with one exception, Bérenger, who was a Franco and who came to a deal with Jugnauth, the previous Prime Minister, on electoral sharing—have come from a relatively small part of India. Over two-thirds of the people currently in Mauritius are of Indian descent. So, if there were a choice to be made in future between China and India, I am as confident as can be that Mauritius would come down in favour of India.

Clearly, Diego Garcia is of fundamental importance to us, as we saw in the SDR. There is clear evidence that the special relationship with the USA has been confirmed. I regret, in passing, this rather opportunist Motion. Yes, the deal has flaws, but it is basically in our national interest.