A British minister denied on Wednesday media reports that the government could end up paying billions of pounds more to Mauritius under a renegotiated deal to retain a U.S.-British military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Sir Keir Starmer has come under fire at PMQs after Mauritius said the UK had agreed to change payment terms in its deal to hand it control of the Chagos Islands. It comes after Mauritian PM Navin Ramgoolam claimed the UK had now agreed to front-load the payments and change how they are calculated.

The UK government said it wouldn’t provide any details on a proposed multibillion-pound deal to continue operating a military base in the Chagos archipelago once it cedes control of the islands until it’s finalized,

Britain and Mauritius denied on Wednesday media reports that London could end up paying double the amount in a renegotiated deal to retain a U.S.-British military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

What a fool I was. In 2020, my wife, our son and I endured a miserable, lonely Christmas, because we were dutifully following the lockdown rules.

Britain's Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said reports on the cost of payments to retain Chagos Islands rising from 9 billion pounds (USD 11.29 billion) to 18 billion pounds were "categorically untrue".

Nigel Farage urged the Government to give Donald Trump’s administration ‘a few weeks’ to think about the Chagos Islands before giving up sovereignty.