Wannabe Prime Minister Andy Burnham is preparing to complete Labour’s Chagos Islands giveaway, sources have claimed.
The handover of the British Indian Ocean Territory, which played a substantial role in the downfall of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership, is expected to cost taxpayers around £35billion.
Multiple sources familiar with Mr Burnham’s thinking have claimed the ex-Greater Manchester Mayor is heavily influenced by Sir Keir’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell.
Mr Powell, who Guido Fawkes expects to keep his role after Mr Burnham secures the keys to No10, referred to Britain’s vital strategic territory as “very tiny islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean where no one actually goes”.
Continuation of Sir Keir’s Chagos policy is expected to enrage Donald Trump and derail Mr Burnham’s wider attempt to reset relations with Washington.
The US President berated Sir Keir over the botched deal, publicly withdrawing US support earlier this year.
Mr Trump also lashed out at Mr Burnham in the White House last month.
When asked by GB News’s Bev Turner about the ex-Greater Manchester Mayor, Mr Trump said: “I don’t know, I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town.”
“I hear he’s extremely liberal, extremely, so that means he probably won’t open up the North Sea.”
Mr Burnham, who is hoping to stand in his third Labour leadership race, was an outspoken critic of Mr Trump after retreating from Westminster to Manchester.
Following Mr Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, Mr Burnham said he would refuse to meet the US President as a “matter of principle” and accused him of sharing “hateful extremist material”.
Mr Burnham also put pressure on then-Prime Minister Theresa May to withdraw her invitation for a state visit.
After the Capitol riots in January 2021, Mr Burnham also said: “Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now.”
Despite Sir Keir pushing ahead with plans to give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Labour was forced to stall the accord as a result of criticism from the White House.
Foreign Minister Stephen Doughty confirmed in April that the deal was shelved following pressure from both the Tories and Reform UK.
He told MPs: “In recent weeks, the position of the United States president appears to have changed.
“And this means that, in practical terms, it has become impossible to agree at political level an update to the 1966 UK-US agreement concerning the Availability for Defence Purposes of the British Indian Ocean Territory, known as the Exchange of Notes.”
He added: “It’s regrettable to us that obviously there has been a delay, we’ve run out of time in this parliamentary session, but the facts have not changed the need for this treaty, or indeed the need for the different processes and legal provisions to be brought in place.”
Legal experts remain divided as to whether the UK would need to pay compensation to Mauritius if the deal collapses altogether.
Mr Burnham was expected to forge closer relations with the European Union, having last year called for the UK to rejoin the Brussels bloc.
The ex-Greater Manchester MP, who saw off Reform UK in the Brexit-backing seat of Makerfield last month, later U-turned on his commitment.
Sir Keir’s resignation also led the EU to cancel its scheduled summit with the UK on July 22.
The EU still expects to forge a closer relationship with Mr Burnham in No10, with British negotiators indicating little significant change in policy.
A spokesman for Andy Burnham told GB News that “absolutely no decisions have been taken” about his approach to the Chagos islands.
