Overview
- Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs on Monday that the Diego Garcia/Chagos bill cannot finish this session and cannot be carried over.
- He said President Donald Trump reversed his stance, which made a political deal to update the 1966 UK–US “Exchange of Notes” on defence use impossible.
- Downing Street declined to promise the legislation will return in the next King’s Speech, leaving the signed UK–Mauritius treaty in limbo.
- Under the agreement, the UK would cede sovereignty to Mauritius and lease back the Diego Garcia base for 99 years, and no payments can start until ratification.
- Official figures put lease payments near £101 million a year, critics claim the long‑term bill could be far higher, and the delay pushes back resettlement plans for displaced Chagossians as African experts renew calls to return the islands under a 2019 ICJ opinion.