Andrew Rosindell, the flag-obsessed oddball MP who last week defected from the Conservatives to Reform, cited the Chagos Islands deal as his main motivations for quitting the Tories, who he said were not doing enough to hold the government to account on it. But has he always felt so strongly?
A letter has emerged that Rosindell wrote to then US president-elect Joe Biden in 2020 calling for a deal over the islands remarkably similar to the one Keir Starmer has since struck.
Rosindell penned the letter warning Biden that failure to “decolonise” Chagos was causing international anger. He voiced his hopes that the US would help bring an end to “historic injustices” and said Britain was committed to returning the islands to Mauritius. The plight of the Chagossian people “remains a shameful blot on the UK’s human rights record and by association that of the US,” he wrote.
“Now is a propitious time to re-assess the long-term security and strategy of this vitally important joint base in the Indian Ocean. There is a need for a radical rethink of policy towards resettlement and the future of the Chagos Islands by the UK,” he added. “Failure to recognise the right to self-determination and to decolonise Chagos is now the focus of international opprobrium which shows no sign of dissipating.
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“The main interest of the United States is the continuation and security of the base on Diego Garcia which would not be threatened by either resettlement, especially if it were on the Outer Islands or eventual Mauritian sovereignty. Chagossians and Mauritius want the base to continue.
“Mauritius has said it would offer the US a 99-year lease. Mauritius has also committed itself to facilitate and fund the resettlement of those Chagossians who wish to return.”
But now Labour has agreed a deal pretty much identical to the one Rosindell appeared to be asking for, he has changed his tune. Asking a question of foreign secretary Yvette Cooper in the Commons this week, he said: “Will the foreign secretary explain if, and rightly so, she supports the self-determination of the Greenlandic people as part of the Kingdom of Denmark, why does she not also support the self-determination of the Chagosian people to remain a British overseas territory?”
Complete hypocrisy from Rosindell – so he’ll make a perfect fit in Nigel Farage’s Reform!
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