UK Chagos Islands Handover Costs Ten Times Starmer Estimate

Official government documents reveal that the UK’s deal to hand over sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Islands) to Mauritius will cost nearly £35 billion, ten times more than the £3.4 billion figure publicly stated by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. The agreement involves the UK ceding sovereignty by the end of the year while leasing back the Diego Garcia military base used by UK and US forces. Civil servants used inflation assumptions and a controversial long-term accounting method to reduce the headline cost on paper, leading to accusations that the government misled Parliament and taxpayers with an “accountancy trick.” Sir Keir had dismissed higher cost estimates between £9 billion and £18 billion as “absolutely wide of the mark,” but the official Government Actuary’s Department document initially valued the deal at £34.7 billion in nominal terms. Opposition figures, including Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel, have condemned the deal as a costly betrayal of taxpayers, demanding transparency and accountability from the government. The deal has sparked political backlash, with critics highlighting the substantial financial burden relative to public spending priorities and accusing the Labour government of covering up the true costs.