Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said he was “thrilled” for the Chagossians on Île du Coin.
Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “Keir Starmer’s £35bn Chagos surrender is a complete betrayal, and throughout the process he has sought to sideline the Chagossian people, treating them as nothing but an inconvenience.
“Chagossians, many of whom have no desire to see the islands handed over to an ally of China, ended up taking matters into their own hands, and now this latest humiliation has further undermined the Government’s case.”
As part of Sir Keir’s deal, Britain is set to rent back the island of Diego Garcia, which houses a joint military base with the US, at a cost of more than £30bn over the next 99 years.
Donald Trump has repeatedly flipped between supporting the handover and opposing it. In January, the US president called it an act of “great stupidity”, but later said he believed the agreement was the best Sir Keir could have struck to maintain control of the base amid legal challenges from Mauritius in the international courts.