We have seen 13 U-turns from the Labour Government since they came to power 18 months ago, but when it comes to their shoddy and appalling deal to hand over the Chagos islands to Mauritius, an ally of communist China, U-turn number 14 needs to happen. Sadly, Labour seems determined to sell out our national interests and pay £35 billion to Mauritius for doing so.
Amid a government prone to mistakes, this one is of huge and long-lasting consequences. While the Chagos Islands have national and international significance, for Crawley they have local significance as we are the home of the largest Chagossian community outside of Mauritius.
The historical injustices are well documented, and because they are, that makes creating a new injustice all the more deplorable. Throughout the whole disgraceful process, Chagossian people have been ignored and treated with contempt by the Labour Government.
To play our part locally and show support for the Chagossian community, in December 2024, on behalf of the Conservative Group at Crawley Borough Council, I tabled a motion to the meeting of the Full Council seeking whole council support to oppose the surrender of the Chagos Islands. I was pleased to gain the support of every councillor and for it to become Council policy to oppose the Mauritius deal.
The deal itself has been going through the parliamentary process and as I write on Sunday, I’m pleased to say the government have paused the deal for a second time. This has been down to the efforts of Kemi Badenoch and the Conservative team in both houses of parliament. Last week, Kemi met with Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives and made the case to him to stop the deal, which he conveyed to the US President.
While most utterings of the current White House incumbent are ridiculous, a stopped clock is right twice a day, and Trump was right when last week he branded the Chagos Islands deal “an act of great stupidity”. While any pause is welcome, only U-turn number 14 and scrapping the deal for good is acceptable.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
28th January 2026
