The incoming Trump administration in the US could be preparing to lock horns with the Labour government over the Chagos Islands, Nigel Farage has claimed. Last month, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced control of the islands would be handed over from the UK to Mauritius.

Hundreds of Chagossians from around the UK gathered in London at a rally calling for a say in the future of the Chagos Islands. The group said they were angry after the UK government announced a deal last month that handed over sovereignty of their homeland to the Mauritian government.

U.S. President-elect Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Mark Rubio, told POLITICO last month that he fears the deal would boost China and warned the agreement poses “a serious threat” to U.S. national security. The Independent reported Wednesday that Trump's new team could even try to veto the deal.

Donald Trump has appointed a leading critic of the UK’s Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius as his national security adviser, in the clearest indication yet that the president-elect will oppose the plan.

The UK's deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius will be met with "outright hostility” by the Trump administration, Nigel Farage has predicted. The Reform UK leader, a supporter and friend of the incoming US president, told MPs the agreement would put the UK at odds with an important ally.

Reuters

Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to give up the Chagos Islands is a “sneaky agreement” that Donald Trump must block, the leader of a Chagos citizens’ group has said. Vanessa Calou, the co-head of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Citizens platform,