Labour calls it diplomacy...I call it 'defeatism'

A GROWING tendency prevails among the British establishment, regardless of the consequences for our Parliamentary sovereignty.

- By Sir John Hayes MP FOR SOUTH HOLLAND AND THE DEEPINGS

Of course, treaties and alliances have long formed part of our island’s rich history — our enduring relationship with Portugal, the world’s oldest alliance, being testament to that.

But in recent times this tradition has been so distorted that we now routinely sacrifice our national interest by elevating the authority of foreign courts, and in doing so sideline the primacy of our own Parliament.

The recent ill-fated decision to engage with the International Court of Justice over the future of the Chagos archipelago exemplifies this national self-harm.

The result is an act of astonishing naivety, as the ICJ’s 2019 advisory ruling, calling on Britain to surrender the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, was not binding.

Yet beguiled by a preoccupation with international edicts, our officials and diplomats acted as if the force of foreign courts carries more power than our own. They do not.

The International Court of Justice holds no authority over us, and so it was certainly possible for us to have ignored it entirely.

To be clear, Britain had, and for the time being still has, sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory. It is a disgrace that this sovereignty is being gifted to another state — not with resistance but with shameless ceremony.