Starmer’s Greenland stance explodes Chagos contradiction as islanders protest surrender deal

• Chagossians say they were never consulted on sovereignty transfer
• UK to pay up to £30bn leasing back its own strategic base
• UN warns deal breaches Chagossian human rights

The Prime Minister has been crystal clear on Greenland. Sovereignty, he says, is for the people of Greenland and Denmark to decide. No outside pressure. No arm-twisting. No shortcuts.

Yet when it comes to the Chagos Islands, that principle suddenly vanishes. Britain is handing sovereignty to Mauritius without asking the Chagossian people at all.

In Parliament Square, anger boiled over. Chagossian campaigner Vanessa Mandarin told GB News: “We want to remain British.” Her family, like thousands of others, was forcibly removed decades ago. Now they face losing their homeland again, this time by ministerial pen.

The deal, signed last May, hands sovereignty to Mauritius while leasing back Diego Garcia, home to a vital UK-US military base, at a cost of roughly £100m a year. Over a century, estimates run as high as £30bn. Britain pays. Britain loses sovereignty.

Legal challenges argue the Government breached basic human rights by refusing consultation. The irony is hard to miss. This is a Labour government led by a former human rights lawyer, accused of sidelining the very people affected.

The House of Lords has already inflicted defeats, backing amendments demanding safeguards and scrutiny. Former Northern Ireland First Minister Baroness Foster has asked the obvious question: why do Greenlanders get self-determination, but Chagossians do not?

Even the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination has raised “grave concerns”, warning the deal risks perpetuating longstanding rights violations. Labour insists its hands were tied by a 2019 advisory opinion from the UN court in The Hague. Advisory, not binding.

With geopolitics tightening and the US watching closely, some hope Donald Trump may yet intervene on security grounds. For now, Chagossians are left asking why their voice matters less than everyone else’s.