Can we just leave the poor Chagossians in peace among the coconut palms and be done with this?
After all, it was they who finally took matters into their own hands and left for home in the face of former British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's risible, fiscally ruinous, completely bogus but totally treasonous deal to 'return' the islands - including the shared base of Diego Garcia - to the communist Chinese proxy Mauritius Islands, which had never owned them to begin with.
...Adding to the milquetoast PM's discomfiture was the fact that a few of the displaced Chagossians themselves, long discarded by the Starmer regime as nobodies in the dispute over their homeland, had, unbeknownst to anyone, paddled on out to the islands and set up camp, reclaiming their if not ancestral home, their traditional one.
The Chagossian First Minister, speaking from his beachfront canvas, gave the United States his blessing to use Diego Garcia however we saw fit, and offered the firm hand of friendship.
Seems like a nice guy with lots of guts.
@GuidoFawkes God bless you, sir, and keep you safe.
— tree hugging sister 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) February 23, 2026
At the end of March this year, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Supreme Court ruled that the Chagossians did, indeed, hold a lawful 'Right to Abode,' stomping on Starmer's threats to move them forcibly off the island...if ever he found a floating British ship to do it with.
The court took Starmer to school on most counts of the 'deal.'
- Has overturned Tony Blair’s law from 2004 that removed the Chagossians' Right of Abode.
- Calculated that the cost of Starmer's Chagos surrender will be up to and over £48bn. The government claimed it would only be £3.7 billion
- The judge made it clear that there is no historical authority for a prerogative power to expel or permanently exclude a population of British subjects from the territory to which their citizenship belongs.
- The Judge quashed the Governnent's removal orders against the 4 Chagossians who recently returned to Chagos to stop the transfer to Mauritius.
This is undoubtedly one of the biggest moments in the campaign to Save Chagos and might completely derail the government’s plans to transfer the territory to Mauritius as there are now Chagossians living on the islands.
All this without the added impact of the U.S. nixing the arrangement, which, under a treaty signed ages ago, it had every right to do.
Then Starmer was out, Andy Burnham was in, and things settled down, with most believing the saga of Chagos was just about over.
Oh, it mostly was, until Nigel Farage went on the Benny Johnson Show and, in one of those sort of unguarded, bonhomie moments, said he'd work a swap with Trump. Chagos - and he clarifies Diego Garcia a second later - to use in perpetuity, if Trump would back off of the Falklands.
The entire conversation snippet is here, and it's important for context, thanks to what happened next.
Breaking: drunk man fantasising about becoming Prime Minister rambles on about handing sovereign British territory to his mate, who, by that time, will already have been impeached and sitting in jail. https://t.co/5LVH20J0wU
— Sam (@SamCKx) October 14, 2026
HEADS 'SPLODING
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch thought she saw an opening and jumped in with both feet.
A whole column in the Telegraph was devoted to covering Badenoch's disgust and outrage.
Badenoch: Farage’s Chagos-Falklands offer to Trump is humiliating
Tory leader says offer to trade islands for president’s silence over Falklands shows lack of pride
Kemi Badenoch has criticised Nigel Farage over his “humiliating” comments about giving Donald Trump the Chagos Islands in return for silence about the Falklands.
Mr Farage had told a podcast he would offer the US president the archipelago as part of a “trade”, if Mr Trump agreed to “stop talking about the Falkland Islands”.
In a rebuke to the Reform UK leader, Mrs Badenoch said: “Giving away British territory in return for someone keeping quiet is not a deal. It is humiliating.
“There is no pride in our country in the way he talks about us. This is careless, loose talk from a man who wants to be responsible for Britain’s national security.”
Speaking on the Benny Show with Benny Johnson, a US podcaster, Mr Farage had said that, if he were prime minister, he would do a “trade” with Mr Trump.
Twisted knickers sister called Farage's conversation 'humiliating.' She seems to have missed the past two years of Britain's decline.
Anyway, the Tories had their teeth in Farage's 'giveaway' and were running like mad with it.
SHOCKING: Nigel Farage admits he would hand over the Chagos Islands. @KemiBadenoch is clear: The Chagos Islands are British, the Falkland Islands are British. There can be no negotiation. https://t.co/dtf6ktq49y
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) October 14, 2026
For its part, the U.S., with a president whose verbiage routinely sends the progressive Left (and occasionally his own party) into paroxysms of spazz, sent Badenoch a hard-to-ignore 'are you out yo mind?' message.
This, naturally, was immediately characterized as an 'attack' on the equally as attacking Ms Badenoch. Although, as 'attacks' go, it probably shouldn't take four paragraphs before you get to what that attack was if it really was one, you know?
Just sayin' - seems sketchy.
White House attacks Badenoch over Farage-Chagos row
Conservative leader said remarks on islands made by Reform leader were ‘humiliating’
...A senior White House official said: “At no point did anyone in the administration construe Nigel’s comments as suggesting that he was giving away the Chagos Islands.
“He was obviously referring to the use of the Diego Garcia military base, which is critical to countering threats from China and Iran.”
They told The Times: “Anyone claiming otherwise is peddling fake news and undermining the Anglo-American relationship, including, apparently, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.”
Under plans initiated by Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister, Britain was set to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in exchange for retaining control of Diego Garcia, a joint UK-US air base.
However, the handover deal was paused in April after opposition from the Trump administration.
Supposedly The Sun editor got a quote from someone at the Department of War echoing the same thing - that Badenoch is off her rocker for starting an international stink over something so stupid.
🪖 The chagos spat rumbles on in DC Now the Department of War chiming in — per senior official; “I can't get into operational details, but I can tell you that for us Diego Garcia is a critical strategic asset. “Anyone trying to use that as a domestic political football like Ms. Badenoch appears to have done overnight, is not someone who would be taken seriously by any administration, Democrat or Republican, on matters of national security. “Honestly, if I were her, I'd be ashamed and probably apologise at this point.”
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) October 14, 2026
...“Anyone trying to use that as a domestic political football like Ms. Badenoch appears to have done overnight, is not someone who would be taken seriously by any administration, Democrat or Republican, on matters of national security.
“Honestly, if I were her, I'd be ashamed and probably apologise at this point.”
Now, Farage is being hoisted by his own, slightly inartful petard, only because they're always looking to hang him anyway.
This is totally dishonest journalism. I make it clear that I am opposed to the surrender of sovereignty to Mauritius. I would offer the use of Diego Garcia to the USA in perpetuity. In return I would want America to go quiet on the Falklands. No one has fought harder to save the Chagos Islands from being given away than I have, unlike the Tories and Labour trying to give them away. I have even helped repopulate the islands with Chagossians.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 13, 2026
But what's pretty hilarious in this whole thing is that the Chagossians, the people who have been found to have a Right to Abode, are doing damage control for Farage, and promoting the perpetual U.S. control of Diego Garcia.
Chagossians can't trust Kemi and the Conservatives.Why start negotiating over what Britain already owned?Nigel never boasts about his help to us. Our vision:US keeps Diego Garcia, a British Chagossian population stays the rest remains under the Crown, and our rights are respected https://t.co/01c7QrSgkR
— Chagos Islands Government in Exile (@BiotCitize56752) October 14, 2026
These are people who can read writing on the wall, God bless them, and know that any of the British political parties are not to be trusted with their national future.
This is a classic dupe by Badenoch, as one commenter noted - pretending not to know what the speaker really meant.
Happens here like clockwork.
@Tony_Diver @Telegraph It's the old Leftie tactic of pretending not to know what you really mean. Surprised to see a Tory using it. Although I don't think the Tories are actual Tories anymore. Taken over by the wets.
— Sir_LarfaLot (@Sir_LarfaLot) October 14, 2026
What is interesting is the original Xweet with that one - that her running her mouth for immediate political points has upset the U.S. applecart, and people are pissed at her.
Greenland is settled and peaceably done, this fellow posits. After the unpleasantness with Starmer denying the use of DG for our B-1s for Iran, rumor had it that working out a quiet purchase agreement for Diego Garcia was moving under the radar. Now, this utterly stupid contretemps purely for political points against Farage has brought it- Chagos, Chagos, Chagos bubbling back to the surface right when no one wanted a whisper of it to ripple serene waters.
...Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch has seized on Farage's comments as evidence that he is willing to sell out British interests to Trump, which she compares to the original Chagos deal under Labour.
She has taken his words on on face value and says Farage has taken a "humiliating" position with his "careless, loose talk".
After @genevieve_holl reported this last night, various sources in the Trump administration who are supportive of Farage said Badenoch was needlessly trying to cause a political row (per @katyballs @MrHarryCole) and accused her of undermining the Anglo-American relationship.
It is possible that these people are particularly sensitive about this topic because they are still considering buying the islands, as @connorstringer and I reported earlier in the year. Domestic opposition to the idea of the US running Chagos in the UK would be a problem for the White House.
All of this has caused a bit of a stink in SW1 because there is not usually a cigarette paper between right-wing parties on the Chagos issue.
Reform and the Tories have been competing with each other for months to get headlines on Chagos but they very rarely disagree with each other.
It will be interesting today to hear what No10 has to say about this - beyond their usual lines about the current deal being the best way to secure the long-term future of the base. Stay tuned!
'Stay tuned,' indeed.
