This morning, US President Donald Trump said the UK's Chagos Islands deal would be "an act of GREAT STUPIDITY" - months after expressing support for the bill that would see the UK hand over sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius.

We'll be closing his live page page soon, but before we go, here's a quick reminder of today's other main developments:

• A UK government spokesperson says the deal protects the UK-US military base on the largest island Diego Garcia, which was "under threat after court decisions undermined our position"
• No 10 also says the US still supports the deal, despite Trump's comments
• Mauritius’ attorney general has responded to Trump, saying his country's sovereignty of the Chagos Islands "should no longer be subject to debate”
• Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch has said Trump is "right" and calls the Chagos deal "terrible policy"

• We've not heard from Trump since he made the comments - but speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson told the UK parliament earlier that the two countries will "face and overcome together" recent challenges

You can continue reading about the latest on the Chagos Islands deal with our latest story:

• What is the UK's Chagos Islands deal and why has Trump criticised it?

Richard Wheeler
Political reporter

Image source, Alamy

MPs will be digesting Trump’s latest intervention when they debate a bill later in Parliament which is required for the Chagos deal to be ratified and brought into force.

The Diego Garcia military base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill returns to the House of Commons on Tuesday and is at the stage of the parliamentary tussle known as “ping-pong”.

This is when legislation moves between the Commons and House of Lords until agreement on its wording is reached.

Some peers have been critical of the deal and the Lords' approved amendments to the Bill, including a requirement on the government to publish the total cost of payments to Mauritius.

Peers also supported an amendment requiring the UK government to conduct a referendum of the Chagossian community.

Ministers have responded by tabling motions in the Commons, which seek to remove five amendments they opposed in the Lords.

The government has comfortably won previous Commons votes connected to the Bill and it is therefore likely that five Lords amendments will be removed by MPs, and peers will have a think about further changes they wish to propose.

Alice Cuddy
Senior international reporter

Image source, PA Media

I’ve been hearing from two British Chagossian women born on Diego Garcia who have been pursuing legal action in the UK to try to stop the deal with Mauritius.

Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe want the right to return to their place of birth and say they were excluded from discussions over the deal.

They temporarily blocked the deal from being signed last May, before the High Court dismissed their legal challenge.

Bertrice says she views the US president’s criticism of the deal as a “good thing” but “only words”.

“If the deal could be cancelled that would give us more time to work towards getting at least half of what we want,” she says.

Over WhatsApp, Bernadette says: “I want the deal to stop and not [see] money [given] to the Mauritius government.”

She says Chagossians should be allowed to “sit at the table and decide our future”.

Several Chagossians in the UK have been drawing comparisons with Greenland, saying that if the government believes that Greenland's future must be decided by its own people and the people of Denmark, Chagossians should be given the same right.

As we have reported, Chagos islanders - some in Mauritius and the Seychelles, and others living in Crawley in Sussex – do not speak with one voice on the fate of their homeland. In Mauritius, dozens of Chagossians gathered to celebrate the signing of the deal last May.

The UK government says its deal protects the UK-US military base and supports the welfare of Chagossians.

As we've been reporting, US President Trump called the UK's Chagos Islands deal "an act of great stupidity" and "of total weakness" in a post on his Truth Social platform this morning.

Last year, Trump indicated he would be prepared to back the UK's deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman analyses the significance of these new comments and their implications for the so-called "special relationship" between the UK and US.

Alice Cuddy
Senior international reporter

Mauritius’ attorney general has responded to Donald Trump’s criticism of the Chagos deal, stressing that it still expects the agreement to go ahead.

In the written statement, Gavin Glover says it is “important to remember” that the deal was “negotiated, concluded and signed exclusively between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Mauritius”.

“The sovereignty of the Republic of Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago is already unambiguously recognised by international law and should no longer be subject to debate,” it says.

"We expect the treaty to be implemented as soon as possible, in accordance with the commitments made."

Diego Garcia's remote location makes it difficult to monitorpublished at 14:56 GMT

14:56 GMT

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The government’s opponents argue that giving up the Chagos Islands represents an act of national self-harm and a boost to the United Kingdom’s rivals, especially China.

The arguments include an element of post-imperial hand-wringing but also the fear that the base at Diego Garcia, vital to both the UK and United States, will soon be more vulnerable.

The base’s remote location makes it extremely difficult to monitor, except from space.

But if Mauritius decides to open up the waters of the Chagos archipelago to commercial fishing, this could change.

“Beijing uses its fishing fleet as the eyes and ears of its military,” Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute wrote in November 2024.

“There is a significant risk that such vessels will soon ply the waters around the base.”

If such concerns were shared by in Washington, there was little sign of it last summer when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke in glowing terms of what he called “this monumental achievement”.

In February last year, Donald Trump said he had “a feeling that it’s going to work out well”.

It’s not clear why he seems to have changed his mind so dramatically.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump's post on his Truth Social platform earlier positioned the Chagos Islands deal as a matter of national security for America, referring to Diego Garcia as "the site of a vital US Military Base".

The US launched a huge construction project on the island in the 1970s and spent 10 years turning it into a fully operational military airbase. The site, and operations there, are highly secretive.

Here are some of the operations it has been involved in before:

• During former US President George W Bush's so-called War on Terror, following the 9/11 (11 September) attacks, US stealth bombers would stop off at Diego Garcia as they returned from bombing-runs of al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan
• It was later a key base for US and UK operations during the Iraq War. Troops and bombing aircraft were stationed there, as well as the giant US Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort
• More recently, in May 2025, satellite imagery from Earth data analytics company Planet Labs showed that the Pentagon had deployed bombers to the island. This came after the US ramped-up its bombing campaign against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen and amid tensions with Iran

Downing Street has said the US still supports the deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, despite President Trump calling it "an act of great stupidity".

The prime minister's official spokesperson says: "Our position hasn't changed on Diego Garcia or on the treaty that's been signed."

"The US supports the deal and the president explicitly recognised its strength last year," they say.

"All our Five Eyes allies support it too and they all understand the national security capabilities that the base provides."

Alice Cuddy
Senior international reporter

When the UK took control of the Chagos Islands - Diego Garcia is the southernmost - from former British colony Mauritius, it sought to rapidly evict its population of more than 1,000 people to make way for the military base.

Chagossians have described being herded on to cargo ships and taken to Mauritius or the Seychelles. Many people born on the Chagos Islands and their descendants have gone on to live in the UK, where they have been granted citizenship.

Chagossians do not speak with a united voice on the fate of their homeland, but many here in the UK oppose the deal with Mauritius, saying that it ignores their rights.

Image source, Getty Images

Several have told me today that they are confused by Trump’s change in position.

“Trump agreed to the deal before, now he is against it. WHY????” one says over WhatsApp.

Others tell me they are unsure what influence Trump could have over the deal now it is signed, and what it would mean if it could be stopped.

"Chagossians don’t accept that our homeland is something governments can ‘give away’ to anyone. It belongs to the people,” says Maxwell Evenor.

“If Mr Donald Trump can stop the deal and say the Chagossians need to have self-determination then good job, but if he says no stop the deal and we’re going to keep the islands British forever with no resettlement then it’s a worse deal.”

As we have reported, under the terms of the deal, Mauritius is free to implement a programme of resettlement on the islands of the Chagos Archipelago other than Diego Garcia.

A day after Keir Starmer made a speech defending the US-UK relationship, Donald Trump has hit out at the prime minister's plan to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

You can read more about the deal and its contents in our earlier post, but for now here are six key things you need to know this lunchtime:

• In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president wrote: "Shockingly, our 'brilliant' NATO Ally, the United Kingdom is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base to Mauritius, and to do so for NO REASON WHATSOEVER". He added this was an "act of GREAT STUPIDITY"
• His comments mark a change in the US position on the deal, signed last May, when the Trump administration had welcomed the move - with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio praising it as a "monumental achievement"
• The UK government has said it "acted because the base was under threat" - North America Minister Stephen Doughty added that the UK would remind the US of the deal's strength in the coming days
• Opposition figures have been quick to resurface their criticism of the Chagos deal. "President Trump is right", said Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, calling the deal "complete self-sabotage", while Reform's Nigel Farage praised the US president for "vetoing" it
• In Mauritius, the attorney general told the BBC it's "no comment for the time being". Last year, officials there hailed the deal as "a great victory" for the country
• Meanwhile, the BBC's political editor Chris Mason says the sentiment he's picking up around Westminster is that a grumpy president, irritated at Europe’s reaction to his desires for Greenland, is lashing out

Stay with us as we continue to bring you the latest.

Will the Chagos deal cost the UK £3.4bn or £35bn?published at 13:12 GMT

13:12 GMT

By Ben Chu

Last year, BBC Verify looked into whether the UK government is right to say the Chagos deal will cost £3.4bn.

The Conservatives have claimed the agreement will cost £35bn and have cited a Freedom of Information release from the Government Actuary's Department from 2025, which they said shows their figure is right.

So which figure is correct?

The Conservatives are not wrong in pointing out that the cumulative value of the annual outlay in cash terms over the 99 years of this deal could easily add up to £35bn.

The government has reached its significantly lower figure by adjusting these cumulative payments for:

• Future inflation
• Something called “Social Time Preference” - the value society attaches to something in the present compared to the future, so the future costs and benefits are discounted to their present value

The inflation adjustment is valid. A payment of £1bn in 2124 will be considerably less onerous for a future government than a payment of £1bn made in 2025, given the likely considerable growth of the economy and tax revenues over a century.

Also, given the extremely long timeframe of the deal, analysts and actuaries consulted by BBC Verify say it is not unreasonable for the government to further discount the payments for Social Time Preference - given that studies of economic behaviour, external show immediate costs and benefits are valued more highly than future costs and benefits by individuals, businesses and governments.

• November 2022: The government under Conservative PM Rishi Sunak announces the UK and Mauritius will begin negotiations on the Chagos Islands
• October 2024: Under Keir Starmer's newly elected Labour government, the UK says it will sign a £3.4bn deal handing sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius - but it will lease back Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, home to a UK-US military base

• May 2025: Two women born on Diego Garcia bring a legal challenge against the deal, saying their people weren't given a say in the archipelago's future and they do not trust Mauritius to treat them fairly. The High Court later dismisses the challenge
• 22 May 2025: The deal is signed. The US says it supports the move, but in the UK Conservative and Reform MPs criticise it
• June 2025: A UN panel urges the UK to renegotiate the deal, saying it "fails to guarantee" the rights of people on and from the islands
• January 2026: Trump condemns the deal as "an act of great stupidity", months after endorsing it. The deal is still making its way through Parliament, and is in its final stages

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, UK Parliament

We're currently listening in to the House of Commons, where MPs are asking questions to Foreign Office representatives. We'll bring you the key lines related to Chagos right here.

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel asks when the government will "see sense and scrap the shameful treaty" concerning handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Responding, Stephen Doughty, minister for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, says the UK "will never compromise on our national security".

He says the Chagos deal is crucial to guarantee the long-term future of the UK-US military base on one of the islands, Diego Garcia. He also reminds Patel that the US supported the deal in May.

"We will of course have discussions with the administration in the coming days to remind them of the strength of this deal and how it secures the base," Doughty says - adding that he's "surprised" by some of Trump's comments.

Political reaction is continuing to roll in after Donald Trump declared the UK's plan to hand over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands as "an act of GREAT STUPIDITY".

Here's some of what we've heard:

• Cabinet minister Darren Jones describes the deal as "the right way to secure the future" of Diego Garcia and says the UK should not be "embarrassed or humiliated by any of those decisions"
• Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says that "unfortunately on this issue President Trump is right" and calls on the PM to "change course on Chagos"
• Emily Thornberry - Labour MP and chair of the foreign affairs committee - accuses Trump of "presidential trolling" and tells Radio 4's Today programme that the UK should not take Trump "literally" but must take him "seriously"
• Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says "thank goodness Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos islands"
• Meanwhile, former prime minister Liz Truss says that Parliament "needs to be made sovereign again", claiming this is "what happens when Government and Parliament is subordinate to an unelected legal complex that prizes "international law" above all else"

Alice Cuddy
Senior international reporter

I’ve asked the Mauritian attorney general for reaction to Trump’s remarks on the Chagos deal.

Gavin Glover tells me there will be "no comment for the time being" from Mauritius on the US’s change in position.

The deal over the Chagos Islands was first announced in late 2024 and signed last May. At the time, Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said the agreement, when in force, would complete "the total process of decolonisation”.

As we have been reporting, the Trump administration previously supported the deal, while Starmer had said that the UK had to "act now" or face Mauritian legal action that could interfere with the Diego Garcia base.

But the deal has been heavily criticised by opposition leaders and some Chagossians here in the UK.

Alice Cuddy
Senior international reporter

Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands and the site of a highly secretive UK-US military base, is one of the most restricted locations in the world.

There are no commercial flights and getting there by sea is no easier - permits for boats are only granted for the archipelago’s outer islands and to allow safe passage through the Indian Ocean.

To enter the island you need a permit, only granted to people with connections to the military facility or the British authority that runs the territory. Journalists have historically been barred.

In September 2024, I gained unprecedented access to the island, though I was placed under stringent restrictions.

The island has startling natural beauty, from lush vegetation to pristine white beaches.

While the territory is administered from London, most personnel and resources there are under the control of the US.

Pulling on to the runway alongside grey military aircraft, a sign on a hangar greets you: "Diego Garcia. Footprint of Freedom," above images of the US and British flags.

Throughout the island, US and UK influences jostle for predominance.

There are British police cars, a nightclub called the Brit Club, and roads with names like Britannia Way and Churchill Road.

But cars drive on the right, as they do in the US, the US dollar is the accepted currency and the electricity sockets are American.

The most sensitive military areas are strictly out of bounds.

• Read more about the secretive tropical island here

Image source, Getty Images

Government figures think a grumpy, irritated president is lashing outpublished at 10:21 GMT

10:21 GMT

Chris Mason
Political editor

As figures in government digest this outburst, a sentiment I am picking up as they attempt to rationalise this is the context: a grumpy president, irritated at Europe’s reaction to his desires for Greenland, lashing out.

We don’t expect to see the prime minister on camera today.

Labour folk are also claiming that - after Kemi Badenoch’s support for the government on Greenland yesterday - at its first test, after these splenetic remarks from the president, she has sided with him.

The Conservatives have long argued the Chagos deal is a dud.

Image source, UK Parliament

Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, is addressing the UK Parliament this morning, as part of a long-scheduled visit.

He tells the room the UK and US will continue to "face and overcome together the challenges of our present day".

Hours after Trump's criticism of the Chagos deal - and amid the US plans to seek control of Greenland - Johnson says President Trump is taking the threats posed by China and Russia "seriously", specifically in relation the Arctic.

He also says that a "strong America is good for the entire world" - and that the same is true of a strong UK.

Why has Trump changed his mind on Chagos?published at 10:07 GMT

10:07 GMT

Nomia Iqbal
News correspondent

If there was ever proof that there is no such thing as a done deal with President Trump, this surely is a staggering example.

Last February he, in effect, signed off on the Chagos Islands being handed over when Keir Starmer visited the White House.

The UK secured a 99-year lease to continue using the vital UK-US military base on Diego Garcia. Trump backed it saying: "I have a feeling it's going to work out very well... I think we'll be inclined to go along with your country."

Fast forward: new year, new mood and a hostile attack on the British PM who has worked very hard to tread carefully with Trump. The president is now basically endorsing the position of Starmer’s opponents in Reform UK and the Conservative Party.

So why has Trump done this?

Well, it punishes Starmer for supporting Denmark on Greenland and criticising tariffs. But also Trump’s previous position on handing over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands was inconsistent with "taking" Greenland on security grounds.

Now he has changed the goalposts, he is likely to argue if you support him on Chagos, you have to support him on Greenland.

Image source, PA Media

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey says Trump's Chagos comments show Keir Starmer's approach to the US president "has failed".

"The Chagos Deal was sold as proof the government could work with him, now it's falling apart," Davey writes on X.

"It's time for the government to stand up to Trump; appeasing a bully never works."