Farage accuses Badenoch of lying again over Chagos base row

Nigel Farage has hit back at Kemi Badenoch after she attacked his comments on the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia, branding her a liar as the row spilled into the open. The Reform UK leader said the Conservative Party leader was twisting his words and could not help herself.

Mrs Badenoch had criticised Mr Farage over what she called an offer to give the Chagos Islands to Donald Trump in exchange for silence on the Falklands. She labelled the hypothetical deal careless, loose talk and humiliating, insisting that giving away British territory for someone to keep quiet was no deal at all. Her remarks appeared to suggest he wanted to hand over the whole archipelago.

Reform clarified that Mr Farage was talking about the Americans using Diego Garcia in perpetuity, not the Chagos Islands as a whole. After the row bubbled overnight, the Reform UK leader stated: “Kemi is lying again. She just can’t help herself.”

The White House backed the Reform leader. A spokesman said that at no point did anyone in the administration construe Nigel’s comments as suggesting he was giving away the Chagos. He was obviously referring to the use of the Diego Garcia military base, which is critical to countering threats from China and Iran. Anyone claiming otherwise was peddling fake news and undermining the Anglo-American relationship, including, apparently, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.

GB News notes the clarification leaves little room for the charge that British territory was being casually bartered away. Diego Garcia remains a strategic asset. Farage’s position, as set out and reinforced from Washington, centres on securing that base for the long term rather than surrendering the islands. Badenoch’s broadside met a direct rebuttal from both Reform and the White House, and the Reform leader made plain he would not let the mischaracterisation stand.

The exchange sharpens the divide over how Britain talks about its overseas interests and its closest security partner. Farage has drawn a firm line. The record, as presented by Reform and confirmed across the Atlantic, points to continued American use of Diego Garcia, not a giveaway of the Chagos chain.

Original source: Daily Express