A small contingent of Chagossians has embarked on a boat journey to their ancestral islands, making a last-ditch effort to reclaim their homeland before the territory is officially handed over to Mauritius by the Labour government.

Arriving ashore on Monday, the group of four called upon 322 fellow exiled Chagossians to join them in establishing a lasting settlement in the archipelago.

Misley Mandarin, the first minister of the Chagos government in exile and leader of the returning group, emphasized the urgency for his people, who were forcibly removed from the British colony over half a century ago, to act swiftly.

Last year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer transferred UK sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a move criticized by some as a ‘betrayal’ of British interests, given Mauritius’s ties with China.

As part of the agreement, Britain agreed to pay billions of pounds to lease back the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the group.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel noted that the Chagossians are now ‘taking matters into their own hands,’ expressing their unwillingness to see the islands transferred to a nation allied with China.

Nigel Farage yesterday said the voyage was ‘truly remarkable’ and called for Labour to make its 15th U-turn by dropping its Chagos deal altogether. He also praised former Tory MP Adam Holloway, who has since joined Reform UK, for accompanying the Chagossians on their journey.

Last month President Donald Trump tore into the deal warning it was an ‘act of great stupidity’, an ‘act of total weakness’ and claimed the site of the Diego Garcia base was being given away ‘for no reason whatsoever’.

He later backed the deal saying it was ‘the best he [Sir Keir Starmer] could make’.

First Minister Misley Mandarin and his father on the Chagos Islands on Tuesday

A group of Chagos islanders has landed on the archipelago to establish a permanent settlement, more than 50 years after the population was evicted from the British colony

The UK purchased the Chagos Islands for £3m in 1968 but Mauritius argued it was forced to give it away to gain independence from Britain.

A deal, which could cost the taxpayer up to £30bn, was signed on May 22 last year, despite a last-minute legal challenge by two Chagossians.

Mandarin was raised in Mauritius and left to join the British Army as a cook. He was elected First Minister in an independent poll of Chagossians held in December. 

It comes as a close friend of Sir Keir Starmer shared an £8million pot for his work in negotiating the ‘surrender’ deal.

Michel Mandarin, speaking in creole, told Conservative Post: ‘We are British Chagossians. We are from this island. And we are here to stay.

‘Mauritius was not easy. There were no jobs. 

‘We had to sleep on a neighbour’s floor because we did not have a house of our own.

‘So I say to every Chagossian, return back to your homeland and live the way we used to live before the exile, and work together and make a better future.’

Philippe Sands KC, who describes himself as a ‘great friend’ of the Prime Minister, pocketed his share of the sum while acting as chief legal counsel to Mauritius between 2010 and 2024.

In that time he secured the controversial deal which will see Britain hand back sovereignty of the strategically important archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, and lease the Diego Garcia military base for 99 years – at an average cost of £101m a year.

Professor Sands, a leading international human rights lawyer who is also close with Attorney General Lord Hermer, led a series of legal teams who were almost exclusively tasked with fighting for the cession of the island to Mauritius.

Together they were allocated at least £8,300,000 from the Mauritian state budget, official documents show.

While the exact figure Professor Sands took home is unknown, his role as chief counsel will have seen him earn the largest cut, according to one international lawyer, who said a large bonus could also be paid on the deal’s completion.

Pressure mounted on Sir Keir Starmer to ditch his ‘terrible’ plan of surrendering the Chagos Islands amid mounting opposition from his own Labour MPs. Pictured: Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands

Members of the Chagossian community gather in Parliament Square in June 2025 in protest against the UK handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

Mr Mandarin said that ‘time is critical’ for his people, who were evicted from the British colony more than 50 years ago

Sir Keir Starmer last year transferred UK sovereignty over Chagos to China ally Mauritius in what critics dubbed a ‘betrayal’ of the British people

Asked how much he was paid, Sands told a House of Lords Committee he ‘did not know’ but admitted he was ‘remunerated, as I am for almost all my cases. It was not done pro bono’.

It was also revealed that the Prime Minister ‘wobbled’ over the Chagos deal amid panic over the £35billion price tag and doubts over the legal position.

Private concerns were revealed by former ambassador to Washington Lord Mandelson, who was forced to resign in September over links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In an interview with The Times, Lord Mandelson he ‘became aware of a serious wobble in London over the agreement and its sellability to the British public’.

‘That was to do with the price tag and whether we had the total legal obligation to enter the deal and whether the original legal case made for the agreement in Whitehall was as watertight as was claimed,’ the peer said.

‘So on the one hand I faced a sceptical US administration and then at another point a wobbly government of my own behind me.’