Statement from Andrew Rosindell M.P. following today's rally against the Government's sell-out deal of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius:
Today I stood in Parliament Square, shoulder-to-shoulder with members of the British Chagossian community and campaigners who once again came to Westminster to make their voices heard about the Government’s shocking surrender of the Chagos Islands.
The Chagossians have been continually betrayed and the pain of forced removal from their homeland in the 1960s and 1970s is a stain on our nation’s conscience. I am ashamed that despite calls from myself when I was Chairman of the British Indian Ocean Territory All-Party Parliamentary Group, campaigners such as those at the Friends of the Overseas Territories, and others, Government's, irrespective of party, have constantly failed to take into account the wishes of the British Chagossian people and have refused to defend their right of self determination.
Now, Labour are attempting to give away their homeland to a foreign country without their consent and the British taxpayer are expected to pay millions for the privilege! The whole thing a scandal and a failure by the British state over many decades!
How Government Ministers can stand at the dispatch box and claim what they're doing is for the sake of Britain's national security is frankly astonishing. The opposite is true. All this 'deal' does is hand away British territory that has been under the Crown since 1814 without proper consultation or consent from the people it affects most directly. In doing so, it weakens our national security and disregards the right of the Chagossian people to determine their own future.
Despite some magnificent wins in the House of Lords this week and the Government now having to postpone the Third Reading of the Bill, this is still an uphill battle. My colleagues and I in the Conservative Party, as well as those from across the opposition, must stand united in staring down this act of national self-harm and putting the Chagossians and Britain's national interest first.
Andrew Rosindell M.P., Shadow Minister for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs
