US agencies disagree with Trump’s opposition to Chagos deal, Starmer says

US intelligence agencies disagree with Donald Trump’s newly found opposition to the Chagos deal, Keir Starmer said on the flight to Beijing, underlining that the US administration had supported the agreement because it bolstered their defences. Downing Street sources told the Guardian the agreement, which was formally approved by Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart last May, is a “done deal” and will not be scuppered by the US.

They said the UK government had heard nothing from either the US Department of State or the US intelligence agencies to suggest they had changed their minds, despite Trump’s fiery rhetoric. Starmer said he had discussed Chagos with Trump “a number of times” and that the matter had been raised with the White House recently.

He said the Trump administration had paused for three months to allow “an agency review” before concluding they supported the deal. “Once they’d done that, they were very clear in the pronouncements about the fact that they supported the deal – and they were announcements made by the defence secretary, from memory, Marco Rubio as well, and by president Trump himself,” he said.

Last week Trump wrote on social media: “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ Nato Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital US Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.

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