That during a visit to Mauritius in 2013, before he even became an MP, Sir Keir Starmer discussed the UK giving away the British Overseas Territory of the Chagos Archipelago with the Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, and 12 years later the two men would sit down to sign the treaty which transfers Chagos, its marine protection zone the size of France in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and all the mineral wealth on the seafloor to Mauritius, is one of the many astonishing coincidences of a most intriguing story.
Among several other barely believable coincidences is that the three most influential legal minds behind drawing up the the final deal; Mauritius counsel Philippe Sands, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and UK Attorney General Richard Hermer; are all fellow international human-rights barristers, and long-time good friends.
Add Navin Ramgoolam losing his position of PM after an election defeat in 2014, and being arrested on money-launderings charges in 2015, when millions of dollars in foreign currencies, suitcases full of luxury watches, and blank British Visas were found in his home, but becoming Mauritius prime minister again just over 3 months after Keir Starmer enters Downing Street in July 2024, and in time to negotiate the final details of the treaty that not only gives Chagos to Mauritius, but also includes agreeing payments that could total tens of £billions of UK taxpayers’ money to lease back a single island, namely Diego Garcia, pushes the boundaries of plausibility to the nth degree.
Project Chagos has been rolling officially since 2003, and unofficially since 1982 when Mauritius first set up a commission to look into the potential mineral wealth in the Chagos Archipelago’s seabed.
Here is just some of the back story, and extraordinary coincidences. At the bottom of this page, you will find links to videos and articles that everyone should watch and read if they are serious about researching and understanding this matter.
In 2003, leading international barrister Sir Ian Brownlie was appointed advisor to Mauritius for the Chagos Archipelago.
In 2009, Brownlie led the first official delegation from Mauritius to the Foreign Office in London seeking a Chagos deal.
In 2010, after Brownlie died in a motor accident in Egypt, Starmer’s “great mate”, Philippe Sands, became counsel for Mauritius for Chagos, the same year the Conservatives returned to power in the UK after 13 years of the Blair/Brown New-Labour government.
Photo from Friends of British Overseas Territories website
In 2013, when Keir Starmer was in Mauritius discussing and agreeing the future of the Chagos Archipelago with the Mauritius prime minister Navin Ramgoolam, he stayed at a 5-star resort, and he was presented with a beautiful model sail ship. After Starmer’s 2013 visit, Ramgoolam wrote that he and Starmer were aligned about Chagos.
As rich, Left-wing international lawyers, and associates of the Mauritius prime minister, Philippe Sands and Keir Starmer were obvious candidates for the police to interview about the suspected money-laundering. Especially, as Ramgoolam claimed the money was donations to his Labour Party.
Were Sands and Starmer interviewed and asked if they had ever donated any money or luxury watches to Ramgoolam?
Ramgoolam was back as Mauritius PM in November 2024 in time for the final negotiations of the deal, and he signed the treaty with Starmer in May 2025.
Mauritius kept adding new clauses and upping the price in the closing stages of the negotiations.
Philippe Sands operates extensively overseas, and is an old hand at taking the UK to international courts and humiliating his own country; something he boasts about with self-satisfied glee in public.
Sands also says, every British barrister would be happy to do the same.
It sounds like a lucrative business model. Cop the normal hefty KC fees, and collect a handsome bonus if you are successful for your client.
Sands became a Mauritius citizen in 2023. If the deal is ratified Mauritius will scrap income tax, and Sands will be able to collect his fees and any bonuses he may negotiated with Mauritius tax free. Lovely Jubbly.
“A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.”
Well, over the years, Sands and his lawyer chums worked hard to obtain rulings such as the ICJ advisory opinion to help them convince the Conservatives to give away Chagos. They came close to achieving their goal, but weren’t able to get it over the line.
No worries, in 2024 a Starmer-led Labour government is elected, and a few months later, the Chagos deal is agreed and signed, despite not being in the Labour manifesto.
In 2025, the UK’s senior law official the Attorney General, Lord Richard Hermer, another international lawyer and close friend of Starmer, recuses himself from signing off on the Chagos deal, and refuses to say why.
There are extraordinary clauses in the deal with severe implications for the West’s security, such as Mauritius having to be informed of military movements regarding Diego Garcia, plus massive fines for the UK, if it doesn’t follow the deal to the letter.
If the deal is ratified nuclear weapons will no longer be allowed on the island, and nuclear submarines will not be able to refuel there in future because Mauritius is a signatory of the African Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Pelindaba),
“We are all honorable men here, we do not have to give each other assurances as if we were lawyers.” from Mario Puzo’s Godfather.
The above doesn’t even include the Chagossian peoples’ right to self determination, or the inevitable environmental disaster the deal will be for the Chagos Islands and the marine protection zone.
Chagos will be an Albatross they shot,
until they lie silent and cold in their burial plots.
Who paid for Keir Starmer’s trip to Mauritius in 2013 when he stayed in a 5-star resort while discussing the Chagos Islands being given to Mauritius with its prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam?
Starmer wasn’t even an MP in 2013, but 11 years later as UK prime minister, one of Starmer’s first acts was to agree a deal to give Mauritius the Chagos Islands and billions of British taxpayers money.
To understand why Mauritius, a country smaller in size than Luxembourg, and with a population of only 1,264,000, would spend many millions of pounds hiring the best British lawyers to gain ownership of the Chagos Archipelago, which is a thousands miles away, read this 2022 article by the brilliant local journalist Iqbal Ahmed Khan, click this link > leexpress
The ICJ ruling Philippe Sands KC, counsel for Chagos, used to demand the archipelago be given to Maurititius is a non-binding advisory opinion. Sands, Starmer & Hermer are old friends. Their deal stinks, everyone can smell it, but they’re prepared to risk everything to force it through. Why? The FCDO has history with Mauritius. click here Africa-confidential. article
Mauritius employed the late Sir Ian Brownlie QC in 2003 as their Chagos advisor, and he led a delegation to the Foreign Office in London back in 2009, when Labour was in power.
When Brownlie died in a motor accident in Egypt in 2010, controversial Labour-supporting lawyer Philippe Sands, a close friend of Keir Starmer, took over for Mauritius, and he put a great deal of pressure on the Conservatives using an ICJ non-binding advisory only ruling with the help of like-minded civil servants, but ultimately a deal was rejected.
Here’s as excerpt from Hansard June 2025: “In December 2023, when my noble friend Lord Cameron was Foreign Secretary, talks on this matter were put on hold after it was concluded that this would not be a deal in which British national interests would be served.
“Indeed, my noble friend Lord Cameron told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee at the time: “We face a very insecure and dangerous world and there is a need to maintain our security and strengthen our alliances to protect ourselves, and we should think of Diego Garcia in that context”.