Liberty, aspiration, and prosperity are the values that the U.S. and U.K. once sought in tandem—the principles that defined our Special Relationship. But now, that relationship lies in tatters. And why?
We were prompted to ask ourselves this recently when The Heritage Foundation hosted the Right Honourable Suella Braverman King’s Counsel and member of Parliament, to deliver the 2025 Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lecture.
Braverman warned that the latest actions of the Labour government could prove a devastating blow to the reputation of her country and the strength of our alliance.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s actions have left the U.S. in a precarious position. Our administrations are at odds and our national security is at risk now that the U.K. has bent a knee to the International Court of Justice and betrayed our collective security in the Chagos Islands.
The Chagos Islands are an archipelago off the east coast of Madagascar, near Mauritius. Their largest island, Diego Garcia, has been home to a joint U.S.-U.K. military base since the 1960s, serving as a crucial strategic outpost for Western defense and intelligence. The base contributed significantly to U.S. efforts in the War on Terror and was used for the launch of airstrikes. Today, the island is just as advantageous as we strive to combat Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.
However, despite its unparalleled strategic importance, Starmer’s Labour government has chosen to surrender British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius—a wholly un-strategic decision that undermines the already declining global influence of the U.K.
This decision is a result of a 2019 advisory opinion issued by the U.N.’s chief judicial body, the International Court of Justice, which determined the U.K.’s retention of the Chagos Islands to be unlawful and recommended sovereignty should be transferred to Mauritius.
The key word here is advisory—this ruling is not legally binding. Yet, Starmer has opted to treat it as such, relinquishing control over a significant overseas territory without care for the effects it will have on the Special Relationship or the stability of the Indo-Pacific.
What, perhaps, is most egregious about the decision is that Mauritius never actually had control over the Chagos Islands. The archipelago was completely uninhabited until Portuguese explorers began importing slaves in the Sixteenth Century. Due to their strategic geographic location, the islands were sought after by many European empires.
When, in 1814, the British Empire took Mauritius from France, the Chagos were governed as a dependency, not as an intrinsic part of Mauritius. And though Mauritius gained independence in 1968, the Chagos were deliberately retained by Britain for military purposes, an arrangement that was clear and agreed upon at the time.
To cede control now suggests a failure on the U.K.’s part to maintain their strength as they bend a knee to the “lawfare” of Mauritius that has manipulated the international narrative to gain control over the coveted islands. Not to mention, the cowardice of Starmer’s rushed attempt to expedite the deal to avoid President Donald Trump’s inevitable veto.
Braverman was clear about the dangers of this arrangement in her Freedom Lecture.
“Kill this deal,” she urged. “Labour is betraying the U.K. and betraying the U.S.”
Braverman is absolutely right. This is not just a matter of repentance for Britain’s colonial past, rather, it is a matter of international security with serious ramifications for the U.K.’s allies
Though the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Navin Ramgoolam, suggests fears of Chinese influence in the Chagos are “entirely unfounded,” he continues to praise China. As of October, Mauritius was host to 47 Chinese development initiatives.
If China secures any sort of foothold in the Chagos Islands, it will gain an enormous advantage in the Indian Ocean—one of the most vital maritime trade routes in the world. Similarly, Tehran has been in talks with Mauritius lobbying for satellite university campuses on the island—a tool used often by our adversaries to deploy spies.
Both scenarios would make the military base at Diego Garcia dangerously vulnerable. Intelligence operations, naval deployments, and strategic deterrence in the Indo-Pacific will be compromised by the presence of Chinese or Iranian surveillance and potential espionage.
These fears would not exist if Britain had strong leadership.
Under Starmer, the U.K. is retreating from its role as a global power, subordinating its national interest, and thereby the interest of the West.
Braverman has consistently sounded the alarm about the erosion of freedoms in the U.K. under Labour and, as she pointed out in her speech last week, it is this same approach to governance that has led to rising crime, mass migration without assimilation, and cultural decline across Britain.
America cannot afford to sit idly by. If Britain hands the Chagos over to Mauritius, it will mark yet another instance of Western self-sabotage. The Biden administration, of course, had no problem with this. One imagines the new administration will.
Freedom, and the freedom to pursue our shared values, is no longer protected by U.K. Starmer’s government, a betrayal that comes at the most unfortunate of times. The West is under attack, the tradition and the power of the English-speaking world are waning, and we face a bloc of states bound by their antipathy toward us.
Weak leadership is not just a political embarrassment, it is a significant national security concern.