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The High Court in London has cleared the way for Britain’s contentious deal to hand over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after a judge initially blocked the accord hours before it was due to be signed.
Mr Justice Martin Chamberlain said on Thursday that an emergency order granted at 2.25am “is discharged from this point onwards”.
The application for an injunction was “unprecedented” and would prevent the government from concluding a treaty “in the exercise of a foreign treaty prerogative” to which it was entitled, he added.
Chamberlain’s ruling comes after Mr Justice Julian Goose granted a stay of the deal in the early hours of Thursday in a case brought by two Chagossian women — led by Bertrice Pompe — against the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
The deal involves Britain making a multibillion-pound payment to retain access to the Diego Garcia US-UK military base while transferring sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius.
It had been set to be signed virtually by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mauritian government officials on Thursday.
At a hearing in the case on Thursday morning, Philip Rule KC, acting for the lead claimant and speaking remotely from New York, petitioned the court to extend the “interim relief” on the deal. He argued that the government had not given proper “recognition and consideration and provision” for Chagossian UK citizens in its decision-making.
However, Chamberlain was critical of the overnight application from the start of the hearing, stating that it was “not really a proper way to litigate” and that the lead claimant should have made an application sooner.
The “interim relief” application was made after the claimants had signalled to the UK government in March that they intended to bring a claim but had struggled to obtain the necessary funding ahead of the government’s decision to sign the treaty, delaying the case.
Responding to Chamberlain’s ruling, the UK government said the deal was “vital to protect the British people and our national security”.
The Mauritian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment but, before the ruling, one government official said ministers wanted the deal to proceed.
James Eadie KC, acting for the UK government, told the court that the claimant was seeking something “unheard of in legal history” by preventing the government from signing a treaty, and that there were “enormous concerns about risking the orderly conclusion of months of negotiation”, which also threatened the UK’s national security arrangements with the US.
The long-planned arrangement for the British Indian Ocean Territory has been heavily criticised by the opposition Conservative party, which has accused Starmer of giving up a key strategic asset and saddling taxpayers with large payments to retain access.
US criticism of the arrangement has been muted under President Donald Trump. The US and UK are set to retain access to the Diego Garcia base under a 99-year lease.
Priti Patel, shadow UK foreign secretary, said on Wednesday that the deal would be “a betrayal of our national interest by Labour, conveniently timed for the last day before parliamentary recess”.
The signing of the deal had been delayed until further notice on Thursday following the late-night application. A press conference with UK defence secretary John Healey was abruptly cancelled in the early hours.
Outside the court, Jemmy Simon, a friend of Pompe and a dual British-Chagossian national, criticised the decision to allow the deal to go ahead. “The government is doing exactly what they did to us 57 years ago . . . they are still doing whatever they want with our lives and our future,” she said, referring to the forced displacement of Chagossians by Britain in the 1960s.
Additional reporting by David Pilling in London
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