Pallade Veneta - UK agrees deal over Chagos Islands despite court challenge

Labour leader Starmer said the agreement was "the only way" to maintain British and American access to a key military base on the archipelago's largest island of Diego Island.

The deal, first touted in autumn last year, will see Britain pay its former colony £101 million ($136 million) annually for 99 years to lease the facility, Starmer told reporters.

"There's no alternative but to act in Britain's national interest by agreeing to this deal," Starmer said. The net cost over the length of the lease would be around £3.4 billion if inflation was factored in, he added.

And the UK's top allies were all on board with the deal, including US President Donald Trump, he said.

His announcement followed a morning of drama at London's High Court that had forced the postponement of the signing of the accord and threatened to embarrass Starmer's centre-left government.

- Last-minute challenge -

Starmer had been due to conclude the agreement in a virtual signing ceremony with Mauritian representatives at 9:00 am (0800 GMT).

But in a last-minute pre-dawn court hearing, two Chagossian women, Bertrice Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse, won a temporary injunction from the high court to delay the announcement.

Starmer's government, which has faced heavy criticism over the plan, challenged that decision. Its lawyers insisted in court that for the deal to be signed on Thursday it would require court approval by 1:00 pm.

Shortly after 12:30 pm, judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the temporary injunction, ruling there was a "very strong case" that the UK national interest and public interest would be "prejudiced" by extending the ban.

Any further challenges would have to be heard by the Court of Appeal.

Starmer insisted that as international legal rulings had put Britain's ownership of the Chagos in doubt, only a deal with Mauritius could guarantee that the military base remained functional.

But speaking outside court, Pompe said it was a "very, very sad day".

"We don't want to hand our rights over to Mauritius. We are not Mauritians," she said.

- 'Forcibly removed' -

Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s.

But it evicted thousands of Chagos islanders, who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.

Pompe, a Chagos Islands-born British national, said in court documents she had been living in exile since being "forcibly removed from the Chagos Islands by the British authorities between 1967 and 1973".

Others had been forced into destitution in Mauritius, where they had suffered decades of discrimination, she said.

The deal would "jeopardise" the limited the rights she currently enjoyed to visit the islands, including to tend the graves of relatives, she added.

Britain's opposition Conservatives have condemned the accord as "British sovereign territory being given away" in a "bad deal" for the UK.

Pompe and Dugasse applied to the court to impose the injunction after a leaked newspaper report late on Wednesday indicated the government planned to unveil the agreement.

As around 50 protesters gathered outside the court, the two women's lawyer, Philip Rule, alleged the government was acting "unlawfully".

He argued there was "significant risk" that Thursday could be last opportunity the court had to hear the case.

But Chamberlain rejected their claims, ruling that the government could go ahead and sign the agreement, which would now be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

The base, leased to the United States, has become one of its key military facilities in the Asia-Pacific region. Its uses include being used as a hub for long-range bombers and ships during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam had said his country would pursue its fight for full sovereignty over the islands if London and Washington refused to back their return.

A.dCosmo--PV