We must stop this appalling betrayal of the British people

SIR KEIR Starmer's meeting last night with Donald Trump in Washington was undoubtedly the biggest moment of his premiership so far. And you don't have to be a fly on the wall of the Oval Office to know that shoring up European security in the face of Vladimir Putin and the Russian war machine was the main item on the agenda.

- Robert Jenrick

For all my differences with the Prime Minister, I wish him well in his endeavour to bolster American support.

But there was another crucially important item up for discussion: The future of the Chagos Islands. In front of the cameras, the President said he was "inclined" to go along with the deal to hand sovereignty of the islands, on which a crucial UK-US military base sits, to a partner of China.

Surrendering British territory remains an appalling betrayal of the British people. America might think it is in their interest. But it is not ours. There is no legal reason to give up the Chagos Islands and it would be a strategic disaster for Britain. Very simply, the Chagos Islands are British. End of.

The problem is, the PM is a lawyer and not a leader. His attempts to surrender the Chagos Islands are nothing short of a betrayal of Britain. He promised to put the British people first, but this is the complete opposite.

He wants to pay Mauritius a reported figure of £9billion to rent a military base on islands that are already ours. In doing so, he's placing his reputation amongst the gilded international legal elite first and the country's national interest last.