Some basics about Chagos for BBC reporters, Sky anchors and others coming new to the debate. 1. The Chagos Islands lie half-way between Africa and Indonesia, and host a key Anglo-American military base on the main island, Diego Garcia 2. France ceded the archipelago to Britain in 1814 separately from Mauritius; the islands were always a distinct territory, though, lacking suitable facilities, their administration was sited in Mauritius 3. To put the issue beyond doubt, Mauritius permanently renounced any claim to the islands in 1965 in return for a cash payment from Britain 4. It eagerly trousered the money, its first post-independence PM, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, explaining that he had been glad to sell any theoretical right to “territory of which very few people knew, which is very far from here, and which we had never visited” 5. Mauritius is indeed 1337 miles from the islands, and began to press its claim again only when it grew closer to China in the early 2000s 6. The barrister it hired was Philippe Sands, a co-founder of Matrix Chambers and a close friend of Keir Starmer’s, who has always been cagey about what conversations they have had about Chagos 7. Far from providing a mandate for the deal, the Labour manifesto explicitly promised the opposite (see graphic) 8. Starmer justifies the surrender by pointing to a non-binding resolution by a UN court, which included a Russian and a Chinese judge, and whose jurisdiction had been expressly denied in disputes between Commonwealth or former Commonwealth states 9. In November, a different UN body issued another non-binding resolution, this one ordering the transfer to be halted, but Labour did not change direction 10. The party may have a guilty conscience, for it was Harold Wilson’s government that removed the 1800-odd inhabitants from the islands after 1968 to make room for the base 11. Chagossians, who now number around 10,000, do not see themselves as Mauritians and overwhelmingly oppose the transfer 12. British and American generals have expressed reservations about the deal, warning that a future Mauritian government might lease adjoining islands to unfriendly powers 13. The base has proved its strategic value many times, lying as it does lies within reach of four of the seven global choke points that funnel maritime traffic: the Bab-el-Mandeb, the Straits of Hormuz, the Malacca Straits and the Cape of Good Hope 14. Mauritius has no navy and admits it cannot protect the territory 15. At the same time, it wants commercial fishing in the matchless marine conservation zone around the islands 16. A Freedom of Information Request shows that the payments to Mauritius will total £34 billion 17. Mauritius says that this money will wipe out its national debt and still allow tax cuts 18. Opponents of the Bill want Chagossians themselves to decide the issue in a referendum 19. If the deal falls, Britain will be under a moral obligation to allow Chagossians to settle the outer atolls (see video in next post) 20. Providing for a permanent settlement will cost (on the government’s figures) one sixth or (on the actual figures) around one fiftieth as much as Labour wants to hand to Mauritius 21. The transfer cannot go ahead without both parliamentary ratification and the formal approval of the US, neither of which has been secured