House of Commons – Sept. 9, 2025 – 286

I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “That” to the end of the question and add: “this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill because it implacably opposes the United Kingdom ceding sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, and is therefore opposed to the terms of the Treaty to which the Bill gives effect, in particular Article 11 of the Treaty which will mean the United Kingdom paying £34.7 billion to Mauritius, leading to tax rises in the United Kingdom to provide tax cuts in Mauritius;

because the Treaty does not secure the base on Diego Garcia, in particular because it does not embody the “right to extend” the 99-year lease to which the then Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs referred in this House on 7 October 2024;

because the measures in the Treaty leave the base vulnerable, and therefore represent a threat to the strategic interests of the United Kingdom;

and because the Treaty does not properly protect the rights of the Chagossian people, or the future of the Marine Protected Area.”