Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has echoed US president Trump’s concern over Keir Starmer’s administration to hand over Chagos Island back to the Mauritius, an act which she described as “self-sabotage,” pointing out that it will weaken the UK security.

In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump has described the UK’s plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as “an act of great stupidity”. He claimed that it had made it all the more important for him to take Greenland from Denmark.

Badenoch reveals she met with the US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, who has visited the UK’s parliament on Monday to discuss along the pending issue while appealing to President Trump to discard his idea of owning Greenland.

Badenoch’s statement on X read: “Paying to surrender the Chagos Islands is not just an act of stupidity, but of complete self-sabotage.

“I’ve been clear and unfortunately on this issue President Trump is right. Keir Starmer’s plan to give away the Chagos Islands is a terrible policy that weakens UK security and hands away our sovereign territory. And to top it off, makes us and our NATO allies weaker in face of our enemies.

“Last night I met Speaker Johnson and we are united in that view. Britain’s and America’s interests align. Keir Starmer has the chance to change course on Chagos. Conservatives call on President Trump to reconsider Greenland too.”

Trump criticized the UK for planning to give away the islands, home to a key joint U.S.-UK military outpost in the Indian Ocean, arguing it invites exploitation by China and Russia.

The deal, signed last May by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, transfers sovereignty to Mauritius but secures a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia—a move initially praised by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

UK officials defended the agreement as protecting national security with backing from allies, while opposing figures like Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, though critical of Trump over his threats of tariffs on European countries who oppose his territorial land grab, have been quick to lend Conservative and Reform support to the US president in his criticism of the UK-Mauritius treaty, which is now making its way through parliament.

The Chagos Islands are an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, located about 5,800 miles south-east of the UK and 1,250 miles north-east of Mauritius. They became British territory along with Mauritius in 1814 as part of the treaty of Paris after the defeat of Napoleon.

The group of islands were designated as British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965 and detached from Mauritius, which became independent in 1968.

The deal then was that the islands would return to Mauritius once they were no longer needed for Britain’s defence.

A joint UK-US military base was built on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia. Displaced residents were resettled in Mauritius and Seychelles, while some were relocated to the UK in 2002.