Labour’s impending deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has been met with a fresh legal challenge just days after top Tory peers announced they would be taking the Government to the High Court.
Two British women born on Diego Garcia – home to a joint UK-US military base – are vowing to take the Foreign Office to court over the “unlawful” surrender.
Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe say the islands should remain British, and both want the right to return to live where they were born, The Telegraph reports.
The native Chagossians were forced to leave the Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the base – and their plight has become a lightning rod for critics of Labour’s controversial handover.
Dugasse and Pompe’s lawyers have sent a pre-action letter to David Lammy’s department, which warns that the Chagossian people have unlawfully not been given a say in the deal.
Pompe said: “Chagossians were removed from their place of birth, without their consultation, and have been treated badly for 60 years.
“Since then we have been struggling to understand why we have been treated so poorly by the British government. Our human rights have been stripped away.
“Today the British Government is repeating the same mistakes which it made 60 years ago… All our suffering and cries to be heard have been falling on deaf ears… I want to stay British and I also want the right to return to the Chagos Islands.”
Barrister Michael Polak, representing the pair, added: “The Government’s attempt to give away the Chagossians’ homeland whilst failing to hold a formal consultation with the Chagossian people is a continuation of their terrible treatment by the authorities in the past.”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office – which is set to issue a response to the letter by March 25, said: “We do not comment on potential legal challenges. The negotiations were between the UK and Mauritius with our priority being to secure the full operation of the base on Diego Garcia. However, we have worked to ensure this agreement reflects the importance of the islands to Chagossians.”
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Waspi women to descend on London in protest at Labour ‘betrayal’
The Waspi women have campaigned for compensation in the wake of DWP ‘maladministration’
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Waspi campaigners are gathering outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday as they step up their battle for compensation.
The Women Against State Pension Inequality group is seeking a judicial review to force the Government to reconsider its decision to rule out a compensation package for women affected by the way changes to the state pension age were communicated.
A previous report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PSHO) suggested compensation ranging between £1,000 and £2,950 could be appropriate for each of those affected.
But in December 2024, the Government said that, while it accepted the ombudsman’s finding of maladministration and apologised for there being a delay in writing to 1950s-born women, a blanket compensation scheme, which could cost taxpayers up to £10.5billion, cannot be justified.
Campaigners said they have raised more than £150,000 in recent weeks to fund a High Court challenge.
Waspi chair Angela Madden said: “We do not want to be taking legal action, but we have been forced to, due to the Government’s total denial of justice.”
A Government spokesman said that “evidence showed only one in four people remember reading and receiving letters that they weren’t expecting and that by 2006 90 per cent of 1950s-born women knew that the state pension age was changing”.
“The Government cannot justify paying for a £10.5billion compensation scheme at the expense of the taxpayer.