The UK has not suddenly alerted the US to the problems posed by the give away of Chagos. Nor has the President suddenly read a brief and got command of the issues.In his welcome condemnation of the folly of the deal he assumed the UK is being paid to surrender the islands. He will be even more stunned by the stupidity when he learns the UK is paying to give them away.
Some contributors here seem to think one word from Nigel Farage and the President is persuaded. This is clearly not true as Nigel could have told Mr Trump a long time ago and may have done do but the US went along with the folly. Presumably they did so because they did not want to disrupt their relationship with the UK government. They sought and were given assurances there would be no cost to them and they could still use the base for 99 years.
Over the last year there would have been exchanges between the 2 governments over this. It is extraordinary that the UK government,full of lawyers , missed the obvious point that the UK/US Treaty requires the UK to keep the Chagos freehold. Or maybe the lawyers thought this was a technicality the US would
agree to repeal.Strange they did not pocket that early.
There have also been many exchanges between leading UK Conservatives and Republicans, urging the US ruling party to think again. People have raised issues including Mauritius being an anti nuclear country, what would happen at the base if Mauritius issues fishing licences for the Chagos, settles people on islands close to Diego Garcia, grants rights to China etc.
The flurry of briefings had a reprise last week with the US Speaker in London. Briefings reached Rubio and Bessent in Davos. Someone half tipped off the President who came out strongly against the deal.
I was the first person to put to the media the fact that the UK signed up for the International Court with express exemptions for Commonwealth matters and defence. The ICJ could not make us give up Chagos. Someone else put out the need to get US consent to Treaty change. We do not know whose briefing got the President to change his mind. Trying to influence a President 2000 miles away takes many attempts by many people to land a key message.
We should also recognise the importance of the Chagos government in exile and the independent group who took the UK government to court over failure to consider the views of the Chagossians.
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January 26, 2026
We spend many billions “defending Ukraine’s sovereignty”, and at the same time propose spending more billions giving away the Chagossisans’ homeland to foreigners. Oh the hypocrisies of our foreign policy. The two consistent things about it are it costs us a lot of money and causes a lot of misery.
January 26, 2026
You’re right about Chagos but wrong to conflate Chagos with Ukraine. Two separate issues. Putin is a corrupt tyrant who we need to stand up to. Like we need to stand up to the EU, Trump (and out-of-control American globalisation and grey-squirrel American culture to our British red-squirrel culture) and China. Whilst focusing on crushing national debt and immigration.
In war, you got to defend all flanks not just one or two.
January 26, 2026
Wish we had a couple of politicians who fail as effectively as Trump and Putin.
Italy’s Deputy PM Salvini to Zelenski
“You are losing the war, you are losing men, you are losing credibility and dignity”
“You must choose between defeat and disaster”
Western Journal: Canada Backs Down on China Deal After Trump Threatens Carney with Tariffs
But typical British politician’s advice: ‘fight on as many fronts as possible’, you are cast in the same mould as Liz Truss.
January 26, 2026
We’ve given Ukraine £15 billion of taxpayers’ money. Do tell us, Ed, how much more you want us to give them. Or do you want British squaddies to give their lives as well?
January 26, 2026
I think you’re being too kind to the present administration. Starmer thinks he can ride roughshod over everyone.. like it or not, it was only after Farage explained to Bessent the absurdity of the deal that Trump intervened.
Now we have the NEC banning Burnham left by Starmer after the debacle of cancelling local elections. It’s Reform taking the government to court, not the uniparty.
The voters won’t forget.
Reply It was an independent group taking the government to court over Chagos. It was Conservative peers that got the motion against the Chagos give away through the Lords and exposed the government breaking its US Treaty so delaying the Bill. Several people got messages to Bessent and Rubio.
January 26, 2026
Burnham candidacy of Gorton and Denton would mean a new election for mayor of Manchester and the likelihood of Labour losing both. It was a no-brainer for the NEC regardless of the issue about him becoming a challenger to Starmer.
January 26, 2026
@Ian Wragg – Starmer is the Law! in his mind at least.
January 26, 2026
One thing I know for certain, Farage will not have had the detail.
He doesn’t ‘do’ detail any more than he ‘does’ computers.
Trump has been busting a gut to treat the U.K. differently from the rest of Europe and NATO. He has a LOT on his plate, Rubio is not the best ‘foreign sec’ – displays neocon instincts, so might not have had the detail of the Chagos deal either – or maybe dismissed it, it does sound full-blown mad.
I think he just snapped at the WEF and rolled out the stupid deal as one of the reasons to justify an attack on Starmer’s Mad Government. It worked!
I think Trump is casting around for a quality British man he can align with, Farage is not it, so somebody has said Blair was the last competent PM. That’s true, competent and evil, and unfortunate combination.
We need Trump to ‘find’ JR (but NOT for the Russia/Ukraine issue).
January 26, 2026
Farage blah blah …Farage blah blah.
That awful weather its all Nigel’s fault.
Obsession or what?
January 27, 2026
This man is our potential next PM.
We need to scrutinize him.
Why are you so afraid of measuring him?
January 27, 2026
Lynn as you often do you missed the point. Lord Offord of Garvel, who previously served as a Conservative minister, joined Reform UK Scotland in December 2025, is the only peer that could have done what was claimed by Sir John achieved by Conservative peers.
I realise your constant sniping of Farage is down to him supposedly taking action to deny your husband UKIP (Reform) leadership. Get over it – at least you accept? that perhaps he or a key figure might get to emerge as our PM after the next GE.
As Sir John often remarks this diary/blog ought to be concerned with hoping to correct issues with the present ruling Government, not character assassination of competing parties.
January 27, 2026
Lynn
“Farage will not have the detail”
Perhaps not every detail, but anyone with common-sense can see what the the basic problem is if they are advised of events basics.
We are paying to give away our own land !
Why did Trump not understand earlier, because the original information he was receiving probably came from Starmer and Mandleson.
Enough said really.
January 27, 2026
I wonder whether you agree, I have been considering why Farage is effective in short bursts.
I believe it’s because his ‘people’ give him a brief, ‘these are the 3 point to get over’. The 3 points are common sense, pretty shallow and we all agree. But those snapshot comments are not going to win in negotiations or in developing legislation. You have to have ALL the detail, and have found all the arguments as JR painstakingly does.
I think of Tim Congdon, that brilliant man. When he was asked what seemed like a simple question on TV, he began analysing the deep and disparate consequences which ended up making him ‘sounding’ uncertain.
Neither Farage nor Johnson ever sound uncertain. They are both back-of-a-fag-packet bar-room politicians.
So that’s the issue. The worst sound the best and the best sound the worst on the media on which we judge them.
January 26, 2026
There were no Reform Peers trying to delay the bill because the three old parties have conspired together to prevent Reform having any representation in the Lords.
For a party supported by 30% of the electorate, that is a disgrace.
Nigel Farage has been very active in supporting the Chagossians, having had their representatives on his GB News show many times.
There will be no Right of Centre government after the next election unless Badenoch and Farage start to work together. Without cooperation, we will get a nightmare coalition of Labour, Lib-Dims, Greens, Plaid, SNP and Corbyn’s lot ( whatever it is called this week), all competing to outspend each other, using our money.
Badenoch and Farage should listen to Jacob Rees-Mogg who is a moderating voice of reason.
January 26, 2026
reply to reply ….Conservative peers … yes well name some Reform peers!
January 27, 2026
Reform have to name Reform peers.
As they have not been present in Parliament, they could no doubt so.
Engage brain once in a while.
January 26, 2026
Good Morning,
If the above is the case, why did the US parties wait so long to intervene?
Why intervene in such a public and disrespectful way?
Why did it need the President to make the intervention rather than the Sec. of State?
January 26, 2026
Presumably the US administration was relying on lawyer Starmer and the persuasive Mandelson to be speaking the truth when describing the deal. Starmer lied to the HoC when he said that China and Russia were against the deal. Would he have told them about the other pitfalls? Would the Americans have ever realised that the heads of the British government could be so incompetent and that the top lawyers acting for the other side were personally acquainted with the prime minister and tip law officer?
January 27, 2026
Yes, that is the penny that has finally dropped.
That the British are led by liars and fools.
January 27, 2026
The UK ‘government machine’ seems to have been steadily falling to bits. That is, versus what we had from the early/middle 19th.C to about three-quarters of the way through the 20th.C. Can we reverse the decline into incompetence and impropriety; if so, how?
January 26, 2026
Good morning.
The Chagosians (sp) have set up their own government in exile such is this Ealing Comedy farce. And just like the car in the Circus the wheels will soon be coming off with loads of custard pies being thrown around for good measure.
This government has made the UK into a laughing stock
January 26, 2026
The Mouse that Roared? 🙂
January 26, 2026
..a laughing stock …That has never been difficult for Labour administrations.
January 26, 2026
It is indeed “extraordinary that the UK government,full of lawyers , missed the obvious point that the UK/US Treaty requires the UK to keep the Chagos freehold. Or maybe the lawyers thought this was a technicality the US would agree to repeal.Strange they did not pocket that early.
Clearly they needed this point to be accepted by the US before even thinking about any discussions. Lawyers are in theory supposed to represent the interests of their clients. So often however they are interested in their personal interests of high fees and lots of billable hours.
The public would benefits from a cost effective, quick, predictable, simple, legal system. The interest of lawyers is served a slow, expensive, multi level courts, highly unpredictable, arbitrary almost random one. As it is designed by lawyers and judges we get the latter!
If it were more predictable cases would settle before court, or appeals or the ECHR and that would not be remotely good for lawyers at all. Lots of litigants is what they want. Often with tax payers paying both sides legal costs!
January 26, 2026
Also, Lifelogic has a tonne of money. And good luck to him sir (can I have some money please to eat in a wonderful restaurante in London with fine wine and a cigar for afterwards) but I am richer than him because I live in the UK which is the greatest nation on earth. Seriously! It’s just a pleasure to walk down a street in London or be in the countryside, go into a pub, have a cheerful laugh with a complete stranger – whatever.
I urge Lifelogic to return to the UK to enjoy what we all enjoy plus we need people like him with his brains to help create wealth here / go into politics etc and sort things out (he’s way more intelligent than me but not why UK is still the greatest nation on earth to live in)
January 26, 2026
Lots of cases are settled on the doorstep of the Court when the lawyer, who has wracked up he fee, advises you to settle.
January 26, 2026
I should have said ‘settle or lose!’
January 26, 2026
Often with tax payers paying both sides legal costs! This either by legal aid funding one side suing an arm of government or just one arm of government suing another arm of government…
Would a company allow one of its departments to sue another department at vast expense? But this is government so no one cares how much money is poured down the drain. If it is pour in their direction even better.
January 26, 2026
Starmer has already made another U turn on the Chagos issue. It seems the Americans have a veto on this after all
Trump does not listen to his professional diplomats or ambassadors. He makes foreign policy on the fly, having surrounded himself with a small number of trusted, sycophantic yes-men/women
The markets are preparing for large foreign holders of $ assets like Treasuries to sell and buy more gold/silver. Gold hit over $5100/oz and silver $105/oz this weekend – however, parabolic moves like this often end in a blow-off top. The question is, how much further will they go?
January 26, 2026
It isn’t a power of veto by America SG.
It is just that we have freely entered into to a treaty with Americs and under international law we are bound by the detail of that treaty until it is re negotiated.
January 26, 2026
Who cares SG? Most people don’t follow these things. My sons are more interested in the football results than the markets. Ask Co-Pilot for the average pension pot size by age group and you will see that the majority are not saving enough. They should be, as it would be very foolish to expect a decent State Pension when they need it.
I also think I’d be very concerned if I was a Civil Servant expecting a large gold-plated pension on retirement. There is no pension pot and there won’t be any money left either at this rate – and not enough cash cows left in the private sector to tax. They will all be living (& working) in Dubai by then 🙂
January 26, 2026
@SG. I think Trump now just has ambassadors and diplomats who tell him what they think will please him. Those who don’t, like Tulsi Gabbard, are sidelined.
January 26, 2026
I think he eventually works out who’s lying and deceiving him, ergo Kellogg is history.
January 26, 2026
The cost of the Chagos “deal” is variously put at between £3 and £35 billion. Given that the Americans make more use of the military base on Diego Garcia than we do, how much of the future “rental” for the base being paid to Mauritius was Starmer hoping to recharge to the USA? Perhaps the Americans realised that they were going to have to pay.
January 26, 2026
Many years ago, the late Sir John Junor of the Sunday Express summed up Labour policy in two sentences: (1) Find out what the unions want; (2) Give it to them.
Here and now, the equivalent is evidently: (1) Find out what globalists and international lawyers want; (2) Do as they say, regardless of how far the British electorate is affronted.
This not only covers the Chagos farce, but also our porous and undefended borders and our lunatic energy policy.
January 26, 2026
Sounds credible and Sir John Junor was spot on with simple truths but forthright.
January 26, 2026
The people who put in the slow, steady effort behind the scenes in any field rarely get any recognition.
Also, I suggest many people are desperate to see an end to the doom loop of incompetent and malevolent UK government and establishment activities and maybe they see Nigel and Reform as the solution, so will be minded to assume they were responsible.
It doesn’t really improve the situation nor boost the false reputation but it does piss of those who did contribute and were actually responsible for solutions.
One of the duties of leadership is to ensure proper recognition for successes and failures is given, but this government has no iota of any of sense of leadership or responsibility, so don’t expect anything but lies and disappointment from them.
January 26, 2026
Trump hasn’t vetoed the transfer yet. He’s just branded it stupidity, presumably thinking that Two-Tier will back down now he’s had it publicly critiqued so strongly. I suggest he doesn’t yet understand the nature of the Authoritarian HR Lawyer currently masquerading as a British Prime Minister.
Trump must refuse to cancel the UK/USA Treaty, which requires British Sovereignty.
What is being overlooked is that although the Not-a-Conservative-Party had been pursuing Sovereignty discussions with Mauritius, Cameron as Foreign Secretary blocked it. The issue was then revived when Labour took Office. That implies that a (or maybe more than one) senior Foreign Office Civil Servant was determined to push the matter and did not want to take Cameron’s NO for an answer.
That/those Civil Servants should not be in a position where they can do so much damage to British interests. We need a clear-out of such individuals.
January 26, 2026
I was involved in a very, very small way with a project researching coral in the Chagos archipelago over 10 years ago so I was familiar with the name and where it was. I doubt very few people in the UK knew of the islands, but many more would have heard of Diego Garcia …. which is perhaps why the government activists decided to use the lesser know name, to not stir up suspicions.
Who exactly in the FO, other departments and political parties have been pushing for this change of ownership, what is their justification and what benefits have/would they receive for a successful outcome?
January 26, 2026
When a government pursues such a lamentable course of action as this government has in relation to the Chagos Islands, isn’t it time there was a full forensic investigation into the real reasons and motivations of those involved in it?
January 26, 2026
Yes there is!
January 26, 2026
Quick fix sell them to USA problem solved. Then withdraw our personell as we don’t support NATO. Or just just scrap whole deal. Spend the money on armforces.
January 26, 2026
When the United Nations were asked by Mauritius to transfer the ownership, sovereignty of those islands to it the UN should have noticed the 1966 Treaty. They failed to do so. It remains valid and binding.
January 26, 2026
I fear our ability to influence the USA has declined in recent times – we don’t seem to have a lot to answer with or give. Trump has already dismissed our sleep walking into deindustrialisation as stupid. He probably wasn’t impressed at a handful of troops protecting Greenland, and I imagine Starmer’s constant surrendering to the EU fills him with gloom as it does us.
The whole subject of Chagos defines the PM – WRONG at every step and every comma.
January 26, 2026
HMG ACTIVATION of another major component of Net-0
Just like the way they handle most things, like enforcing illegals into army barracks in the dead of night, they do it without fanfare but with deceit and no consultation.
In other words – HMG is giving councils official authorisation, even persuasion, to implement 15 minute villages.
January 26, 2026
I suspect now that this was a major reason why HMG wanted local elections delayed because they knew labour councils would implement this.
January 26, 2026
‘government, full of lawyers , missed the obvious’ Why. they appear, those lawyers ex and otherwise, seemed to have it in their heads that they make up the Laws to fit their brief when it suits their pockets and themselves.
It could also be a corrupt dysfunctional Parliament situation they seem to have lost the plot, Parliament is the only place that legitimate Laws that pertain to the UK can come from. Its MPs are the UK’s only Legislator. Those in the UK Parliament, our MPs haven’t yet accepted they are not order takers. Orders from unelected, accountable bureaucrats is not the reason for a sovereign democratic elected Parliament. Their order come from those that empower and pay them, those that leant them power and authority. MPs in the UK Parliament now own every minutia of every day life in the UK, including every utterance of their chosen Government, it is their responsibility alone for all actions. Rationally ‘the Legacy Act ‘ will apply to all citizens – no one will be immune from being a traitor, including MPs
The days of lazy ‘free-loading’ are over. Handing over Chagos is the traitorous action by the whole of Parliament, the cancelling of elections is the traitorous action by the whole of Parliament. Along with all the actions of their chosen anti-UK Government. It is every MP that owns and is individually responsible, unfortunately for us no one else. Without elections to affirm MPs destruction of Society they are all individually acting as tinpot dictators, as such they cant blame the electorate when and if the day ever comes that.
January 26, 2026
Removing the existing Labour government would remedy the Chagos matter and many other maladies.
January 26, 2026
‘the International Court’ this is not a court were law is passed down, it is a court were they interpret treaties and mediate a mutual way forward. They cant fine, impose sanctions or jail.
Treaties only exist as agreements that are of a mutual benefit to the party’s involved. Treaties are not Law, therefore their is no such thing as International Law. Logical the International Court should stop calling its self a Court – it is a mediation council
January 26, 2026
It was always an idiotic policy. Created by an idiot. Perhaps the man across the Atlantic, who is usually seen as an idiot, could be correct on this….
January 26, 2026
So The President has now changed his mind, when the facts have not changed, but a clearer understanding of the real facts are now known.
Was the President lied to by our Government or Prime Minister ?
Or was he/they deliberately kept short of the facts, and if so, by whom.
I did raise this very point a few days ago on this site, as honesty is surely fundamental to our relationship with America, especially on security.
I can well understand that the Presidents team did not look at the Conservative claims (whenever they made them) as they are an opposition Party to the present UK Government.
I do however find it strange that the Presidents team did not investigate further themselves as a matter of course, the security arrangements of an important military base.
Starmer has not yet cancelled the Chagos deal, so this fiasco has some distance to run.
January 26, 2026
I see it is now being reported on Guido Fawkes site that the UK Government may have not informed America about the proximity of sensitive cables adjacent to the Proposed China embassy site.!
Is this yet another deliberate withholding of potential sensitive information by our Government to the US.
If they are not careful America may well wonder about sharing sensitive information with our Government
January 26, 2026
Also, of I had a tonne of money like Lifelogic, I’d buy a beautiful queen-Anne house in the countryside with a lovely garden and go fishing and shooting with a lovely house in Chelsea with a season football ticket, money for eating out and theatre and the rest in London, and so much more (I’d go abroad for holidays but I’m always glad to get back). And I’d be obliged to give some money away too but that’s a more personal issue. But I certainly wouldn’t live abroad. Why. Because that is where one is being dictated by money instead of choosing to live in this GREAT country of ours (and would deffo not choose to live in Malibu – boring – or anywhere else in the USA – or Europe or Russa or China – whether Trump were president or not).
January 26, 2026
I am not actually very rich but were I to return to England it would cost me about £25 million in total in extra taxes over the circa 18 years left of my estimated life expectancy. I can return for 90 nights and about 120 days without paying this sum. I regard it is my moral duty to stop the government getting and wasting this sum (as I know I and my children will almost certainly spend and invest it far better than Starmer, Reeves, Lammy and Miliband will).
January 27, 2026
Thanks. No offence. Best to you sir.
January 26, 2026
The question is what ever pocessed the UK Government, or maybe I should say Starmer, Harmer & Sands, to make the decision in the first place. I would argue it is treason to give away a UK territory to anyone, let alone a country in lockstep with China. Then, to pay billions to give it away for no reason at all.
It was an early red flag warning us that this Government is utterly incompetent.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. That sums up what is happening to the UK today.
January 26, 2026
Off topic
I see we have now a reported 700,000 graduates claiming benefits, 240,000 of them with so called mental problems.
This raises so many questions as to what is going wrong with our Country, Government policies/management.
January 26, 2026
the mental problems are possibly :
a) what do I do now after dossing about for 3 years and few parties to go to ?
b) why don’t any CVs sent/emailed never get a response?
c) how can that horrible Student debt keep getting bigger with interest when I have to survive on UC?
d) There is no chance I’ll ever get out from living with parents, or renting/ buying a home of my own.
e) Living in UK seems an endless round of what has gone up in price since last week!
f) Everybody keeps going on about something will turn up….but it hasn’t.
g) The surgery fobs me off when I ask to see a Doctor about being depressed.
January 27, 2026
I suggest in at least some cases, the mental health problem will be depression and anxiety closely related to the sudden realisation that they have clocked up £50,000 of debt in exchange for a degree which has absolutely no marketable value in the real world.
January 26, 2026
The labour government and two tia starmer
Strike again islanders rights first
It call democracy. Starmer is doing the same to the uk selling us out to the EU
January 26, 2026
Thanks for keeping us up to date on the Chagos Islands and your work in this area
January 26, 2026
Farage taking credit was just like when he takes credit for having wrung the referendum out of Cameron. He did not. He didn’t have the power. It was all those backbench Brexiteers threatening a leadership challenge.
January 26, 2026
The US is moving serious military assets toward Iran. That may have drawn the President’s attention to the great strategic importance of Diego Garcia.
Or maybe the President has a long memory for uncivil comments about himself and, like a Mafia godfather, enjoys taking his revenge cold.
It would be nice to think so.
January 26, 2026
It was clear at the time of the Suez crisis 1956 that Britain had no influence in the US – we used it all up when MI6 worked with The CIA to overthrow the lawful government of Iran in 1953 all on President Eisenhowers watch and since then we have been playing a foolish pretend game called – “our special relationship”
January 26, 2026
But what other countries say ‘Yes Mr President’ as often as we do?