Martin Callanan
1.2K posts

Martin Callanan
@MartinCallanan
Conservative Peer. Ex-Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance. Formerly in DexEU and DfT. Proud Geordie and Toon fan.



🚨EXC: w/@Tony_Diver 🚨 Donald Trump is refusing to back Sir Keir Starmer’s Chagos deal again unless the Prime Minister allows the US to use the islands to strike Iran. The US president is understood to have asked to use Diego Garcia as part of contingency planning for potential bombing raids. However, Downing Street is concerned that supporting any such strikes by Mr Trumpwould breach international law. US officials have also demanded confirmation in writing that America will not be required to tell Mauritius about attacks launched from the base after the sovereignty of the islands is transferred. Ministers are now concerned that it will not be possible to resolve the situation before the end of a 10-week deadline to return the Chagos bill – legislation that underpins the deal – to Parliament for the approval of MPs. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/…




🚨 Huge news: The FCDO admits a crucial detail that destroys the government’s basis of their Chagos Islands deal



According to *his own book on the matter*, the architect of the Chagos deal, Philippe Sands, literally coordinated with Russia to ensure that Russia’s claim to Crimea— not recognised by the UK— would not be harmed





Please read. This is what our govt is throwing away in Chagos, for no good reason. ‘Without intending to be melodramatic, my visit to the British Indian Ocean Territory genuinely changed my outlook on the world. During my month long visit to the Chagos Archipelago, I glimpsed a world largely untouched by the activities of mankind, and realised how depleted the reefs and islands of our planet had become. My trip ruined every future holiday for me, because I know that I will never find a place with such natural beauty, but this is a small price to pay for the privilege of experiencing such a rare tropical wilderness. It would be a tragedy if the unique expanses of wilderness across the Chagos Archipelago were to be in any way degraded. The greatest value of the British Indian Ocean Territory lies in its nature, the exuberance of which is what makes the Chagos Archipelago so special. As the last large system of wild tropical islands on Earth, they offer a final chance for us to conserve an entire tropical island ecosystem as a benchmark so that we may measure our impacts elsewhere across the globe.’





