Austen Morgan: How to use the law to save the Diego Garcia base from Starmer’s bad Chagos deal
We're watching the same failure loop.
Dr Austen Morgan is a barrister at 33 Bedford Row Chambers. He is the author of: Pretence: why the United Kingdom needs a written constitution, London 2023.
With US launching attacks on Iran, the crisis over Diego Garcia – the formally joint UK/US military base on the Chagos Archipelago, part of our overseas territory or colony (the British Indian Ocean Territory [‘BIOT’] established in 1965) – is becoming global.
The argument over Britain not allowing its use to the US for the initial airstrikes last weekend has amplified it.
When the UK granted Mauritius its independence eventually in 1968, the country’s leaders – in return for financial payments – agreed to the hiving off of BIOT. That did not stop Mauritius’s later leaders playing the decolonization card: the February 2019 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (which did not bind the UK); and the May 2019 resolution of the UN general assembly (which is not part of international law).
Prof Philippe Sands KC of Matrix chambers represented Mauritius over the years. His head of chambers became Richard Hermer KC, now the attorney general. And the latter had been led, at Doughty Street chambers, by Keir Starmer KC, the just about hanging on prime minister. These three musketeers share a – incorrect – view of the rule of law as dominated by international lawyers and judges.
It was the labour government of Harold Wilson which ordered the expulsion of the Chagossians from the Archipelago (1968-73), to the Seychelles and to Mauritius, where they were treated badly (as I learned on a visit in 2023). Many of the Mauritian Chagossians now live as British citizens in Crawley, near Gatwick.
Supporters of the Chagossians, those who believe in the rule of law, and those concerned with international security (particularly the threat of growing Chinese influence in Mauritius), have had to contend with Jonathan Powell, now the national security adviser in the cabinet office, and a Sinophile, the architect of the May 2025 – leaseback – UK/Mauritius treaty, which is mercifully well and truly stalled in parliament.
Faced with a fickle and unpredictable Donald Trump, who is being pushed hither and thither whilst pushing back himself, opponents of the current labour government’s Chagos sellout would be advised to concentrate upon three legal issues.
First, the direct action by Misley Mandarin, the unrecognized first minister of the Chagos, in settling on L’Île du Coin (120 miles from Diego Garcia). Sir Keir issued a removal notice within 24 hours, and the Chagossians secured an interim injunction from the BIOT chief justice, James Lewis KC, a London barrister.
A claim is waiting to be made in the administrative court in London, against the second threatened expulsion of Misley …
We're watching the same failure loop.
Dr Austen Morgan is a barrister at 33 Bedford Row Chambers. He is the author of: Pretence: why the United Kingdom needs a written constitution, London 2023.
With US launching attacks on Iran, the crisis over Diego Garcia – the formally joint UK/US military base on the Chagos Archipelago, part of our overseas territory or colony (the British Indian Ocean Territory [‘BIOT’] established in 1965) – is becoming global.
The argument over Britain not allowing its use to the US for the initial airstrikes last weekend has amplified it.
When the UK granted Mauritius its independence eventually in 1968, the country’s leaders – in return for financial payments – agreed to the hiving off of BIOT. That did not stop Mauritius’s later leaders playing the decolonization card: the February 2019 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (which did not bind the UK); and the May 2019 resolution of the UN general assembly (which is not part of international law).
Prof Philippe Sands KC of Matrix chambers represented Mauritius over the years. His head of chambers became Richard Hermer KC, now the attorney general. And the latter had been led, at Doughty Street chambers, by Keir Starmer KC, the just about hanging on prime minister. These three musketeers share a – incorrect – view of the rule of law as dominated by international lawyers and judges.
It was the labour government of Harold Wilson which ordered the expulsion of the Chagossians from the Archipelago (1968-73), to the Seychelles and to Mauritius, where they were treated badly (as I learned on a visit in 2023). Many of the Mauritian Chagossians now live as British citizens in Crawley, near Gatwick.
Supporters of the Chagossians, those who believe in the rule of law, and those concerned with international security (particularly the threat of growing Chinese influence in Mauritius), have had to contend with Jonathan Powell, now the national security adviser in the cabinet office, and a Sinophile, the architect of the May 2025 – leaseback – UK/Mauritius treaty, which is mercifully well and truly stalled in parliament.
Faced with a fickle and unpredictable Donald Trump, who is being pushed hither and thither whilst pushing back himself, opponents of the current labour government’s Chagos sellout would be advised to concentrate upon three legal issues.
First, the direct action by Misley Mandarin, the unrecognized first minister of the Chagos, in settling on L’Île du Coin (120 miles from Diego Garcia). Sir Keir issued a removal notice within 24 hours, and the Chagossians secured an interim injunction from the BIOT chief justice, James Lewis KC, a London barrister.
A claim is waiting to be made in the administrative court in London, against the second threatened expulsion of Misley …
Austen Morgan: How to use the law to save the Diego Garcia base from Starmer’s bad Chagos deal
We're watching the same failure loop.
Dr Austen Morgan is a barrister at 33 Bedford Row Chambers. He is the author of: Pretence: why the United Kingdom needs a written constitution, London 2023.
With US launching attacks on Iran, the crisis over Diego Garcia – the formally joint UK/US military base on the Chagos Archipelago, part of our overseas territory or colony (the British Indian Ocean Territory [‘BIOT’] established in 1965) – is becoming global.
The argument over Britain not allowing its use to the US for the initial airstrikes last weekend has amplified it.
When the UK granted Mauritius its independence eventually in 1968, the country’s leaders – in return for financial payments – agreed to the hiving off of BIOT. That did not stop Mauritius’s later leaders playing the decolonization card: the February 2019 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (which did not bind the UK); and the May 2019 resolution of the UN general assembly (which is not part of international law).
Prof Philippe Sands KC of Matrix chambers represented Mauritius over the years. His head of chambers became Richard Hermer KC, now the attorney general. And the latter had been led, at Doughty Street chambers, by Keir Starmer KC, the just about hanging on prime minister. These three musketeers share a – incorrect – view of the rule of law as dominated by international lawyers and judges.
It was the labour government of Harold Wilson which ordered the expulsion of the Chagossians from the Archipelago (1968-73), to the Seychelles and to Mauritius, where they were treated badly (as I learned on a visit in 2023). Many of the Mauritian Chagossians now live as British citizens in Crawley, near Gatwick.
Supporters of the Chagossians, those who believe in the rule of law, and those concerned with international security (particularly the threat of growing Chinese influence in Mauritius), have had to contend with Jonathan Powell, now the national security adviser in the cabinet office, and a Sinophile, the architect of the May 2025 – leaseback – UK/Mauritius treaty, which is mercifully well and truly stalled in parliament.
Faced with a fickle and unpredictable Donald Trump, who is being pushed hither and thither whilst pushing back himself, opponents of the current labour government’s Chagos sellout would be advised to concentrate upon three legal issues.
First, the direct action by Misley Mandarin, the unrecognized first minister of the Chagos, in settling on L’Île du Coin (120 miles from Diego Garcia). Sir Keir issued a removal notice within 24 hours, and the Chagossians secured an interim injunction from the BIOT chief justice, James Lewis KC, a London barrister.
A claim is waiting to be made in the administrative court in London, against the second threatened expulsion of Misley …
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