Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I am glad that the noble Lord opposite has finally reread my contributions in this place from, I think, November, when I talked about an exchange of notes that would be needed with the United States in relation to the 1966 treaty. I am glad he has internalised what I said then as a fact. There would need to be an exchange of letters, and that is in hand. He asked whether that would then necessitate a CRaG process, and we will look at that when we get the detail of the letters. If it does then we will do that, but it may well not.

On whether or not the noble Lord’s amendment is a wrecking amendment, it is wrecking in its effect. As I understand it, the only wording in it that would be binding on the Government is the date, which he put as 23 March. This would breach the agreement we have with Mauritius. It may be a self-imposed deadline, but that is the deadline we have set ourselves as part of this agreement.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, with regard to the 1966 treaty, it is worth acknowledging that Article 2 is the basis upon which, under the euphemism of what the treaty calls an administrative measure, the expulsion of a population from that archipelago, and its forced depopulation, took place. That treaty is the basis on which this Government, and, I hope, every subsequent Government, will feel shame.

However, that treaty is the basis of the relationship with the United States. Therefore, it is quite extraordinary that the terms under Article 11, which stated that the treaty would expire in 2017 and then have an automatic extension for 20 years, were not chosen to be extended by the previous Conservative Government. This treaty—which we should now all depend upon for our long-term security relationship with the United States—would, under the previous Government, run out in 2037. Article 1 of the treaty, however, states that

“The Territory shall remain under United Kingdom sovereignty”.


Can the Minister confirm whether, when the previous Government opened negotiations with Mauritius on the basis of ceding sovereignty, there were any diplomatic messages to our ally the United States that Article 1 needed to be reviewed and updated?

[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.