Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

It is my understanding that the situation with regard to the 1966 treaty has certainly been understood by my Government, and, I am assuming—I cannot see that it would not have been—by the previous Government. That makes this rather late-in-the-day pseudo-alarm seem rather strange—but here we are. I agree with the noble Lord about the shame we should feel at the forced displacement of the population. He is right to bring that up and I feel that way.

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister suggested that this agreement was supported by our Five Eyes partners, including the United States—the Secretary of State to the US made a statement to that effect. I know from briefings we have had in the ISC the important nature of this base for us, the United States and our Five Eyes partners. They were looking for stability, which this agreement gives. In the other place today, it was suggested by some that the National Security Adviser has misled the United States in this agreement. Can the Minister tell the House that that is completely and utterly untrue?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend, the chair of the ISC, for drawing that to our attention. I was not aware that that accusation had been made, but of course it is completely untrue and unfounded. I can only think that these things get bandied around in the heat of debate, but whoever said it might want to consider their words.