Political commentator Piers Pottinger has lashed out at Keir Starmer on GB News after the terms of the Chagos Islands ‘surrender’ were revealed to be more costly than first thought.

He said the Labour Government has “no common sense” after a Freedom of Information (FOI) exposed a cost beyond initial claims.

Pottinger said: “Everything they do or say turns out not to be quite that. When you look at the detail of any deal they do or anything they announced, it all looks somehow rather different.

“The deal in itself was already quite shocking. I’m quite surprised the Americans seem to support it. It shows Keir Starmer is a terribly weak leader, if you can call him a leader.

PA / GB NEWS

“When you look at the announcement about deporting foreign criminals before they appeal, it sounds like a good idea. Why haven’t they done that before?

“Then you look at it, the problem is, this means they will have to come out of the European Human Rights Conventions under rule eight, family life, which they won’t want to do.

“The second problem is, the countries they deport them to have got to accept them. They haven’t agreed that yet.

“I will believe this when I see it happen.”

GB NEWS

The Government's agreement to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritius will cost taxpayers nearly £35 billion, a figure ten times higher than the Prime Minister's public declaration of £3.4 billion.

The revelation emerged through documents obtained by the Conservative Party, showing Whitehall's internal assessment placed the true expense of relinquishing the Indian Ocean archipelago at £34.7 billion in nominal terms.

The arrangement requires Britain to surrender sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory whilst continuing to pay substantial sums to maintain access to the Diego Garcia military installation, a strategic facility utilised by both British and American forces.

Ministers now face allegations of deliberately misleading Parliament through financial manoeuvring designed to obscure the actual burden on public finances.

REUTERS | Diego Garcia

Government actuaries initially calculated the agreement's cost at £34.7 billion before civil servants applied various reduction methods to arrive at the publicly stated figure.

The first adjustment involved applying inflation estimates across the 99-year timeframe, significantly lowering the nominal amount.

Subsequently, officials employed the Treasury's Social Time Preference Rate, an accounting methodology typically reserved for long-term infrastructure projects, to further diminish the figure to £3.4 billion.

Starmer had previously dismissed cost projections ranging from £9 billion to £18 billion as "absolutely wide of the mark" when defending the arrangement earlier this year.

GB NEWS

The Conservative Party obtained these calculations through Freedom of Information legislation, revealing the stark contrast between internal government assessments and public statements about the financial implications of the sovereignty transfer.

Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, has called for the Prime Minister to issue both a correction and an apology to MPs in the House of Commons.

"Instead of owning up to the costs, Labour have used an accountancy trick to claim the amount was only a mere £3.4 billion," she told The Daily Telegraph.

"We've all known it's a terrible deal with huge costs to hard-pressed British taxpayers. But for months, ministers in public and Parliament have sought to cover up the true amounts."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch stated: "It's bad enough that Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves' economic mismanagement has created a £50 billion black hole in the public finances, prolonging the cost of living crisis."

"Now our research has uncovered the Government's own figures showing Labour's Chagos surrender is costing the country another £35 billion. Add that to their £50 billion black hole, and it's clear when Labour negotiates, Britain loses."

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office representatives rejected claims that the calculations constituted an attempt at concealment.

A government spokesperson defended the arrangement: "The Diego Garcia military base is essential to the security of the UK and our key allies, and to keeping British people safe. The average cost is £101 million per year, and the net present value of payments is £3.4 billion – this is less than 0.2 per cent of the annual defence budget."

The spokesperson added: "The deal is supported by our closest allies, including the US, Canada, Australia and Nato. The costs compare favourably with other international base agreements, and the UK-US base on Diego Garcia is larger, in a more strategic location and has unparalleled operational freedom."