UK Shelves £3.4B Chagos Handover After Trump Truth Social Post: 'Do Not Give Away Diego Garcia'
Britain will not introduce legislation to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in the parliamentary session beginning May 13, the Foreign Office confirmed, after Donald Trump publicly attacked the 99-year Diego Garcia lease as 'a big mistake' Starmer was making with a claimant Trump called 'fictitious.'
The United Kingdom has shelved the bill required to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius, ending for now a £3.4 billion treaty that was signed less than a year ago. A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson told reporters on April 11 that "we have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support," and officials confirmed the new Chagos legislation will not appear in the King's Speech on May 13 that sets the government's agenda for the next parliamentary session.
The deal the UK is now backing away from was announced by Downing Street on May 22, 2025. Under its terms, the UK would cede sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius while leasing back Diego Garcia — the atoll that hosts a joint UK–US military base — for 99 years, with an option to extend by a further 40. The Government Actuary's Department valued the payments at an average of £101 million per year and a net present value of £3.4 billion, with heavier payments front-loaded in the early years.
What Trump actually posted
The pivot away from the deal tracks a sequence of Truth Social posts from President Trump. He initially called the arrangement "an act of GREAT STUPIDITY" in January and appeared to soften in early February after a call with Starmer. He then reversed course on February 18, 2026, publishing a 292-word post that framed the lease as an unacceptable transfer of military leverage to a claimant he considers illegitimate.
"I have been telling Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United Kingdom, that Leases are no good when it comes to Countries, and that he is making a big mistake by entering a 100 Year Lease with whoever it is that is 'claiming' Right, Title, and Interest to Diego Garcia, strategically located in the Indian Ocean," Trump wrote. He called the Mauritian sovereignty claim "fictitious in nature" and invoked a potential strike on Iran as justification for keeping the base under UK control: "it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford, in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous Regime."
He closed with: "This land should not be taken away from the U.K. and, if it is allowed to be, it will be a blight on our Great Ally… DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!"
The deal's financial terms
The UK government's May 2025 release laid out what Britain agreed to pay Mauritius in exchange for sovereignty being handed over while the base operation continued:
| Term | Value |
|---|---|
| Lease length | 99 years (extendable by 40) |
| Average annual payment | £101 million |
| Net present value of payments | £3.4 billion |
| Payment profile | Heavier in early years, indexed later |
| UK signatories on announcement | Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Defence Secretary John Healey |
| US role in deal | Joint base tenant; US support required before ratification |
The FCDO argued at the time that the agreement "secures the future" of Diego Garcia by ending the litigation and advisory-opinion losses the UK had been accumulating at the International Court of Justice and UN General Assembly, where the UK's continued administration of the archipelago had been ruled unlawful in 2019.
Where it stands now
Mauritius is not treating the pause as the end of the matter. Speaking at an Indian Ocean Conference in Mauritius on April 11, Foreign Minister Dhananjay Ramful said his government would "spare no effort to seize any diplomatic or legal avenue to complete the decolonisation process in this part of the Indian Ocean." Port Louis had considered the 2025 treaty the endpoint of a decades-long claim; with Westminster now unwilling to move, Mauritius is signalling it may return to the ICJ and UN routes that produced its earlier legal wins.
The UK's position is that the deal remains live in principle but dormant in practice. "We continue to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but we have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support. We are continuing to engage with the U.S. and Mauritius," the FCDO spokesperson said. In parliamentary terms, that means no Chagos bill in the session that begins May 13, and no clear path to ratification while the Trump administration remains opposed.