Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship Diego Garcia Chagos Bill has been pulled from the parliamentary calendar as pressure mounts on the Prime Minister to U-turn on his handover deal with Mauritius.
Lord Kempsell, an outspoken critic of Labour’s £35billion “surrender deal”, confirmed the bill would not return to the House of Commons before MPs leave Westminster for recess on February 12.
Tory peer Lord Hannan confirmed that the vote can take place on February 23 at the earliest.
“We need to keep up the pressure on both sides of the Atlantic,” Lord Hannan added.
“If you haven’t yet done so, please email your MP or your Congressman. We can still win this thing.”
The decision to pull the vote came just minutes before US President Donald Trump delivered his verdict on Sir Keir’s Chagos deal.
Despite Mr Trump labelling Sir Keir’s deal an “act of great stupidity” just two weeks ago, the US President offered his conditional support to the Prime Minister.
In a lengthy Truth Social post, Mr Trump said: “I have had very productive discussions with Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the Island of Diego Garcia.
“It is the site of a major US military base, strategically situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean and, therefore, of great importance to the national security of the United States.
“I understand that the deal Prime Minister Starmer has made, according to many, the best he could make.
“However, if the lease deal, sometime in the future, ever falls apart, or anyone threatens or endangers US operations and forces at our base, I retain the right to militarily secure and reinforce the American presence in Diego Garcia.
“Let it be known that I will never allow our presence on a base as important as this to ever be undermined or threatened by fake claims or environmental nonsense.”
Mr Trump broke ranks with Sir Keir after the pair disagreed on the US President’s plans to take over Greenland.
However, Downing Street confirmed Sir Keir had spoken to Mr Trump before the US President’s most recent Truth Social post.
“The Prime Minister spoke with the President of the United States, Donald Trump today,” a No10 spokeswoman said.
“On Ukraine, the leaders discussed the ongoing peace negotiations.
“The Prime Minister expressed his deep concern about Putin’s continued barbaric attacks on innocent civilians, particularly in freezing temperatures.
“They also agreed on the importance of the deal to secure the joint UK–US base on Diego Garcia, which remains vital to shared security interests.
“The UK and US will continue to work closely on the implementation of the deal, they agreed.”
The deal, which is expected to cost an eye-watering £35billion, is still facing hurdles in Westminster.
Reform UK and the Tories remain vocal critics of the proposed deal with Mauritius.
Speaking to GB News last night, ex-Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “This Government has betrayed us. We talk about betrayal, this is a big betrayal.
“We have the right over the Chagos Islands. And what happens is that the problem is that they got a judgment in the UN, and it couldn’t be an absolute judgment, it was an observatory and guidance. It wasn’t anything else from that.
“And what happened was this Government decided before they were in power that what they were going to do straight away is to get this into law and then put a treaty together and get rid of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.”
