Nigel Farage vowed to pile the pressure on the US to kill off Labour’s Chagos islands surrender as he visited Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
Reform UK’s leader was due to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night and said he would ‘reinforce the message’ that Sir Keir Starmer’s plan – to hand the Indian Ocean territory to Mauritius while leasing back its crucial airbase for £35billion – is the ‘worst deal in history’.
His move came amid growing hopes that the President will sink the arrangement in retaliation for the Prime Minister initially refusing to let his bombers launch strikes on Iran from Diego Garcia.
Mr Farage said before leaving for the US: ‘President Trump has almost understood the deal, almost, but I will be dining at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow night and will reinforce the message.
‘It was the worst deal in history, dreadful from every perspective, an absolute betrayal of so many things.
‘We’ve got to keep fighting, we’ve got to keep the pressure up, we must not let our foot off this pedal but for first time in this battle, in the last few days this feels more than winnable.’
In another setback for Sir Keir, Mauritius is planning to sue Britain over the delays in the ratification of the controversial deal.
Its Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said: ‘We are exploring legal avenues in the Chagos case.’
Downing Street declined to comment but Government sources believe there is no basis in law for Mauritius to obtain compensation for delays.
Sir Keir’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘Maintaining control of Diego Garcia is the entire basis for the agreement that we’ve reached. To maintain our control protects against legal challenges and locks out our adversaries from being able to compromise its operation.
‘It is a key strategic military asset for both the UK and the US that’s enabled our shared security for nearly 60 years. It is the only way to ensure that the base remains secure and operational for the long term.’
Meanwhile a senior US politician said he was ‘deeply alarmed’ by the UK’s plan to hand the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, claiming it would ‘jeopardise US national security by exposing military operations to China and potentially restricting military access to Diego Garcia’.
Senator Ted Cruz said in a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: ‘The UK is taking a serious gamble with the special relationship by putting one of our most vital shared military assets at risk.’
Frank Garcia, Mr Trump’s nominee to be Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, agreed with him that the base on Diego Garcia was vital to the US’s security.
He pledged: ‘If confirmed, I commit to working with the committee to look at the issues with regard to our agreements, long-term agreements with the UK to share basing opportunities there.’
