Keir Starmer was today urged to ‘be a hero’ and scrap the planned ‘surrender’ of the Chagos Islands, after Donald Trump’s latest U-turn heaped fresh pressure on the PM.

The erratic US president lashed out at Sir Keir over the plan to sign the British Oversea Territory over to Mauritius, saying it was a ‘big mistake’, despite having previously cleared it.

In an explosive post on Truth Social, the US president warned The PM not to ‘give away’ or ‘lose control’ of the crucial joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, under the controversial century-long lease Labour has agreed.

Trump also said that the US military may need to launch attacks on Iran from the site if Tehran refuses to do a deal with him.

The interim First Minister of the Chagos Islands government has called for Sir Keir  to cancel the agreement, which will cost the UK taxpayer tens of billions of pounds over the course of a century.  

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Misley Mandarin said: ‘You could be a hero right now. Don’t ratify that deal, cancel that deal and let Chagossians come back to their homeland as British.’

He is part of a group of four Chagossians who this week returned to the islands, telling the programme: ‘We came in our homeland and we said that it has to stay British because we are British citizens.’ 

However, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones said the UK’s Chagos Islands deal is important for national security and the bill to approve the handover would be brought back to Parliament ‘as soon as parliamentary time allows’.

The erratic US president lashed out at Sir Keir over the plan to sign the British Oversea Territory over to Mauritius, saying it was a ‘big mistake’, despite having previously cleared it

In an explosive post on Truth Social, the US president warned The PM not to ‘give away’ or ‘lose control’ of the crucial joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia

The interim First Minister of the Chagos Islands government called for Sir Keir to cancel the agreement, which will cost the UK taxpayer tens of billions of pounds

Trump’s dramatic intervention comes less than a day after his State Department declared that ‘the United States supports the decision of the United Kingdom to proceed with its agreement with Mauritius concerning the Chagos archipelago’.

US officials are due to hold talks in Mauritius’s capital, Port Louis next week on ‘effective implementation of security arrangements for the base’. 

However, President Trump’s outburst on his Truth Social platform may suggest he wants to change the terms agreed by Labour after it came to power.

It will likely force the Government to further postpone debate in Parliament on the bill to ratify the treaty, under which the UK will also hand Mauritius as much as £30billion, and could even lead to another major U-turn.

The legislation was delayed last month when President Trump first stunned ministers by describing the agreement as a ‘great act of stupidity’.

In his new message, he wrote: ‘I have been telling Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United Kingdom, that Leases are no good when it comes to Countries, and that he is making a big mistake by entering a 100 Year Lease with whoever it is that is ‘claiming’ Right, Title, and Interest to Diego Garcia, strategically located in the Indian Ocean.

‘Our relationship with the United Kingdom is a strong and powerful one, and it has been for many years, but Prime Minister Starmer is losing control of this important Island by claims of entities never known of before. In our opinion, they are fictitious in nature.’

He went on: ‘Prime Minister Starmer should not lose control, for any reason, of Diego Garcia, by entering a tenuous, at best, 100 Year Lease.’

And he added: ‘We will always be ready, willing, and able to fight for the U.K., but they have to remain strong in the face of Wokeism, and other problems put before them. DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!’

A group of Chagos islanders land on the archipelago to establish a permanent settlement, more than 50 years after the population was evicted from the British colony

The Chagos Islands have been the subject of a decades-long sovereignty dispute after they were not granted independence along with the rest of Mauritius in 1965.

The population was subsequently expelled from the archipelago to make way for the airbase, and have staged a long-running campaign for the right to return.

On Tuesday, a small group of Chagossians arrived on the island by boat in a final attempt to reclaim their ancestral land before it is surrendered. 

Last night, shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel came out in support of Trump’s comments. 

She said: ‘President Trump has once again publicly rebuked Keir Starmer and his Government over their ill-judged, unnecessary and expensive Chagos Surrender. This is an utter humiliation for Starmer.

‘It’s time Starmer finally saw sense, U-turned and scrapped this appalling deal altogether. 

‘Giving up British sovereign territory to an ally of China and paying for the privilege is irresponsible and reckless and is clearly undermining our relationship with our most important ally.’

Tory peer Lord Kempsell, who has lobbied the White House to intervene, added: ‘Starmer’s deal is finished. He must now withdraw his Diego Garcia Bill from Parliament.’

Reform MP Andrew Rosindell said: ‘It speaks volumes when POTUS appears more concerned with defending the United Kingdom’s national interest than Keir Starmer.

‘The Government must do the patriotic, honourable, and common-sense thing and scrap this disgraceful sell-out of a deal. Keep Chagos British.’

And former minister Lord Redwood said: ‘Good advice from President Trump on Chagos. Please listen Prime Minister.’

An aerial view of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean 

The Government says the future of the base in the Chagos Islands has been threatened by recent international court decisions.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: ‘The deal to secure the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia is crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies, and to keeping the British people safe.

‘The agreement we have reached is the only way to guarantee the long-term future of this vital military base.’

Yesterday, the Mail exclusively revealed that a close friend of Starmer shared an £8million pot for his work in negotiating the ‘surrender’ deal.

Philippe Sands KC, who describes himself as a ‘great friend’ of the Prime Minister, pocketed his share of the sum while acting as chief legal counsel to Mauritius between 2010 and 2024.

In that time he secured the controversial deal which will see Britain hand back sovereignty of the strategically important archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, and lease the Diego Garcia military base for 99 years – at an average cost of £101m a year.

Professor Sands, a leading international human rights lawyer who is also close with Attorney General Lord Hermer, led a series of legal teams who were almost exclusively tasked with fighting for the cession of the island to Mauritius.

Together they were allocated at least £8,300,000 from the Mauritian state budget, official documents show.

While the exact figure Professor Sands took home is unknown, his role as chief counsel will have seen him earn the largest cut, according to one international lawyer, who said a large bonus could also be paid on the deal’s completion.

Asked how much he was paid, Sands told a House of Lords Committee he ‘did not know’ but admitted he was ‘remunerated, as I am for almost all my cases. It was not done pro bono’.