Commons Chamber

Wednesday 25th February 2026

(began 1 hour, 52 minutes ago)

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None Portrait Q3. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support jobs in the defence manufacturing sector in Scotland. (907994)
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secure at home and strong abroad just last week. As has already been referenced, I visited Australia,
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Kemi Badenoch Portrait Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex, Conservative)
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Mr. speaker, I am amazed that while we're trying to talk about student loans, the Prime Minister student loans, the Prime Minister has the cheek to talk about my party being smaller. His party is smaller too, including one MP who smaller too, including one MP who was arrested for child sex offences. So perhaps before he gets on his high horse, he should ask why his backbenchers are saying that they're being called the Paedo Defenders party. Yes. I didn't say it.

I didn't say it. I know, I know, it makes them.

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Yes. Call it. OK, let's have less Kemi

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Badenoch. I know they don't like it. Mr. speaker.

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Mr. speaker. Does the hon. Member want to leave at this stage? Just leave at this stage? Just understand. I want to hear the question because it's very important that I do here, because I'm going to have to make a

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I'm going to have to make a judgement. So I don't need any more shouting. Amen. I know they don't like it, Mr. Speaker, but I haven't said anything. That's not true, have I? So perhaps. Yes. So perhaps they should get off their high horse. Stop making stupid jokes. And why don't we talk about student loans?

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Yeah. Policies that may have been fine for 2012 with low interest rates for 2012 with low interest rates are not fine for 2026. The fact is, are not fine for 2026. The fact is, graduates are paying more, not less. On Monday, the schools Minister was On Monday, the schools Minister was asked on the BBC why Labour froze the repayment thresholds. She said the government has, and I quote, huge pressures. Those pressures have been created by his taxes and his borrowing to pay for more welfare.

Why is the Prime Minister taking from students to give to Benefit Street?
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Kemi Badenoch Portrait Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex, Conservative)
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those policies. >> And it goes for the role as well. Chair, Select Committee, I expect

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to set a standard not to shout somebody down. Mr. speaker.

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I don't need any backchat. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. He's only talking about student loans now because I raised it. He says they're fixing the problem. The fact is, he's not. Why is it that I'm willing to ditch old conservative policies that don't work, and he wants to keep them? He's not going to do anything about it at all. On Monday, they voted to increase benefits yet again. The fact is, he is taking money out of the pockets of graduates and giving it to people who are not working.

It is not fair. It is not just that he is saddling graduates with debt. It's not just that he is saddling graduates with debt. Yesterday, the Bank of England, the Bank of England. Yes. Where she used to work in customer services. Yesterday, the Bank of England. Yesterday. Mr. speaker, the Bank of England said that his policies are fuelling youth unemployment. That's not us. That's the Bank of England. For the first time ever, youth unemployment is now higher here than it is in the EU.

And while he blames everyone else, our young people can't get jobs. They are

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losing hope and even leaving the country. Will the Prime Minister tell us how he plans to deal with it? Yeah.

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Yeah. Prime Minister. Speaker, she said she's ditched ditching failed Tory policies. It's ditching failed Tory policies. It's a very long list. 14 years of list. And it starts with the word sorry. And when she says that word, we'll take her seriously, Mr. Speaker.
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None Portrait Urgent question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs if she will make a statement on the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territories
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Mr Speaker.
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Hamish Falconer Portrait Mr Hamish Falconer MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Lincoln, Labour)
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Been, and. the military base on Diego Garcia. It is a base critical for our national security and helping to keep the British people safe. It is a key strategic military asset for both the United Kingdom and the United States. It has enabled our shared security for nearly 60 years. When we came into government, it was clear that our ability to maintain our interest and control in the base was under threat. So this government had to take action to protect our military advantage and to stop our adversaries gaining a hold in such a strategically important part of the world, refusing to act Mr Speaker could have exposed one of our most valuable military assets to China.

So, like any responsible government would, we negotiated a deal to protect our interests. This government inherited a situation where the operation of the base was in immediate jeopardy, and negotiations on a transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius was well advanced by the previous government. The deal delivers on our objective of maintaining the secure, effective operation of this vital military base. It would allow us to operate this joint UK US base as we have always done. Mr.

speaker, this House knows that the government worked tirelessly with the United States in developing and testing the treaty to ensure that it met our shared security needs. That is why it was supported by two administrations. This is why Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth, and indeed President Trump himself came out so strongly in favour when the treaty was signed in May last year. I can assure this House nothing in the treaty has changed since the US administration gave their original endorsement of the deal, and we continue to work with Mauritius and the United States.

Mr. speaker, the UK government has great sympathy for the community. They feel a deep emotional connection with these islands. We have been clear in our regret for the manner in which Chagossians were forcibly removed from the islands in the 60s and the 70s. We are working to resume a programme of heritage visits for members of that community. Mr. speaker, we will continue to work with both Mauritius and the United States on this agreement. As the Prime Minister has said, we have very close relations with the United States.

That relationship matters profoundly, not just to our security, but to the prosperity and the stability that people here at home depend.
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Nigel Farage Portrait Nigel Farage MP (Clacton, Reform UK)
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Frost. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the situation in America has Well, the situation in America has changed. As you know, the British government went around America and said a whole load of things such as it was legally necessary to give away the Chagos Islands, which of course wasn't true. Do not give away Diego Garcia. Capital letters from the American president. He likes capital letters in his posts, and all the other arguments have been well rehearsed. The fact that it could cost us up to 50 billion, the fact that the Chagossians weren't just badly treated then, they're being badly treated now because they've resettled and they've got eviction notices from your government.

But I can tell you this from my trip to the Maldives at the weekend, something I hadn't realised. And I don't know whether the government knows it either. It is the Maldives that has the historical links with the Chagos Islands, both in terms of trade, in terms of archaeology. In fact, the islands all the French did was rename the islands from the Maldivian language. There is no basis historically, culturally in any way for Mauritius to have a claim on those islands.

And the Maldives are upset for two reasons one, there has been great stability in this region for decades. And what happens with this treaty if it goes through, is you finish up with a turf war going on between India and China in the region, and that indeed has already started. And I wish to inform the government that we are just a few days away, in my opinion, from the Maldives. Issuing a counterclaim to the International Court of Justice to say if anybody has the right to the sovereignty of those islands, it is the Maldives and not Mauritius.

And I would urge you to pause all of this.

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Minister. Mr. speaker, the hon. Member for

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Mr. speaker, the hon. Member for Clacton suggests that we have gone around the American government. I have set out already in my response have set out already in my response the extensive talks that we have had with both secretaries and indeed the president of the United indeed the president of the United States within recent months on this question. There is no question of going around the US government. The going around the US government. The member, the hon. Member says, well, what has changed? Clearly, the view of the United States President may well have changed, but the treaty has not.

We have discussed this treaty in great detail in this House. It is a treaty that emerges from talks initiated by the previous government and completed. I would. Mr. speaker, I would find it more plausible to hear chuntering from the benches on the other side from me. Were I not a diplomat in the Foreign Office during the period they were negotiating this deal for 11 rounds? I understand I do understand that the members opposite, honourable and Right honourable, wish to now distance themselves from the 11 rounds that they conducted.

But let us at least order.

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No one of us is sitting down. It's not. We. Look, people have put It's not. We. Look, people have put a UQ in others. Members of this. I want to hear it. I want to hear it. I expect them to hear it. I expect

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I expect them to hear it. I expect them to hear it in silence. Mr. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Returning to the substance.

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Of the hon. Member's question, I would just like to remind him that if he turned up with a selfie stick to RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, to RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, a similarly sensitive military base, he would be turned away. I do not understand his surprise or those who travelled with him, that when you sought over the weekend to film a video on a sensitive military site under the control of the UK, it is part of the. It is part of the British Indian Overseas territories, as you know, and I

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would encourage the hon. Member and indeed every member of the public to check British traveller. Order. Order, order!

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Order, order! You keep saying you. I am absolutely not responsible about this film. You are the involvement.

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this film. You are the involvement. Please. I'm being drawn into something I don't wish to be at this stage. Mr. speaker, I can only

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Mr. speaker, I can only apologise. We not seek to draw you into such a flagrant instance of ignoring travel advice that the treaty is as it was signed. It is going through both houses of Parliament. We are discussing this with our American colleagues. The fact that the hon. Member sought to take a selfie video on the islands does not change any of those facts.
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Wendy Morton Portrait Rt Hon Wendy Morton MP (Aldridge-Brownhills, Conservative)
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Mr. UK government will abide by international law and will continue to do so. >> The Minister Wendy Morton. >> Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Labour's Chagos surrender is a shameful, unnecessary and reckless deal that leaves Britain weaker, deal that leaves Britain weaker, poorer and less secure. This is not a legal necessity. It is a political choice made by a floundering Prime Minister. And it is British taxpayers who are left to pay the price. No other government would pay £35 billion to hand over its own sovereign territory and make its country less secure in the process, at a time when families are being squeezed, Ministers are asking them to subsidise another country's Budget, potentially funding tax cuts in Mauritius while taxes rise here at home.

That is indefensible. So can the Minister confirm that no payments will be made under the treaty of the so-called Strategic Partnership, unless and until ratification is fully complete? Because. This is a national security crisis. Two Diego Garcia is one of the most strategically vital military bases in the world, and yet Ministers are pressing ahead before resolving the binding. 1966 UK US treaty before addressing concerns raised by President Trump and without guaranteeing that the lease can can never collapse or be legally challenged on Unclass, will he confirm that article 298 provides an opt out from compulsory dispute settlement for military activities? Meaning this can, this can.

This is a political choice, not an unavoidable legal trap. So I ask the government, will they suspend the bill until the legal position with the US is settled and any amendments have been scrutinised under Crag? Will he confirm whether the Pelindaba treaty would apply were Mauritius to take sovereignty, and, if so, what ironclad safeguards protect our nuclear deterrent? And finally, what of the British Chagossians, some of them now on the islands? Can he guarantee there will be no forced removal and that their rights will be protected in full? Mr.

speaker, British sovereignty is not for sale and this House should not be bounced into surrendering it.
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