Sir Keir Starmer will have to wait for approval from Donald Trump before finalising a deal with Mauritius over the future of the Chagos Islands, a bombshell report has revealed.
Labour had been hopeful about certifying an agreement with Mauritius over the islands before the incoming President's returns to the White House on January 20.
Trump has not commented publicly on the proposed deal and it did not come up during his phone call with Starmer in late December.
Despite several factors still being in play, confidence has faded among British Government figures that the deal will be secured before next Monday.
The Mauritian Government will host a special Cabinet meeting tomorrow morning to discuss, and potentially approve, the latest proposals, reports the Financial Times.
It was previously reported Trump was looking to veto Labour's Chagos Islands deal, with the President-elect understood to be taking legal advice from the Pentagon on how to kill the deal off.
A Washington source said: "Trump has received a UK-sourced briefing on Chagos, and has asked the presidential transition team to work with the Pentagon to get legal advice.
"He has expressed a stance in principle to object to the deal if elected on the advice of the Department of Defense based on their global security posture."
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Meanwhile, Trump allies Mike Waltz and Marco Rubio have both pointed to the looming threat of China, which counts Mauritius as an ally, over the islands.
Waltz said: "Should the UK cede control of the Chagos to Mauritius, I have no doubt that China will take advantage of the resulting vacuum."
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage separately told The Independent: "There is, I can assure you, having been in America last week, knowing also the incoming defence secretary [Pete Hegseth] very well, there is outright hostility to this deal.
"Whatever is said about a lease agreement, as we saw with Hong Kong, these agreements can very, very easily be broken...Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet as far as America was concerned."
Foreign Secretary David Lammy hit back at the comments, saying there was support from the White House, Pentagon, Department of Defence and intelligence agencies for the proposals
Lammy suggested that Trump and his allies would also throw their support behind it after seeing the details.
Current Mauritian Prime mMnister Navin Ramgoolam said his new administration wanted to review the terms of the agreement, which had not been ratified by treaty.
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Labour had been hopeful about certifying an agreement with Mauritius over the islands before the incoming President's returns to the White House on January 20.
Trump has not commented publicly on the proposed deal and it did not come up during his phone call with Starmer in late December.
Despite several factors still being in play, confidence has faded among British Government figures that the deal will be secured before next Monday.
The Mauritian Government will host a special Cabinet meeting tomorrow morning to discuss, and potentially approve, the latest proposals, reports the Financial Times.
It was previously reported Trump was looking to veto Labour's Chagos Islands deal, with the President-elect understood to be taking legal advice from the Pentagon on how to kill the deal off.
A Washington source said: "Trump has received a UK-sourced briefing on Chagos, and has asked the presidential transition team to work with the Pentagon to get legal advice.
"He has expressed a stance in principle to object to the deal if elected on the advice of the Department of Defense based on their global security posture."
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Meanwhile, Trump allies Mike Waltz and Marco Rubio have both pointed to the looming threat of China, which counts Mauritius as an ally, over the islands.
Waltz said: "Should the UK cede control of the Chagos to Mauritius, I have no doubt that China will take advantage of the resulting vacuum."
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage separately told The Independent: "There is, I can assure you, having been in America last week, knowing also the incoming defence secretary [Pete Hegseth] very well, there is outright hostility to this deal.
"Whatever is said about a lease agreement, as we saw with Hong Kong, these agreements can very, very easily be broken...Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet as far as America was concerned."
Foreign Secretary David Lammy hit back at the comments, saying there was support from the White House, Pentagon, Department of Defence and intelligence agencies for the proposals
Lammy suggested that Trump and his allies would also throw their support behind it after seeing the details.
Current Mauritian Prime mMnister Navin Ramgoolam said his new administration wanted to review the terms of the agreement, which had not been ratified by treaty.
Find Out More...