SECURITY services in the US agree with the UK’s Chagos deal even if Donald Trump has cooled on it, Sir Keir Starmer has claimed.
The Prime Minister even refused to say that the US President understood the agreement.
Mr Trump had backed Britain giving the Indian Ocean islands to China-friendly Mauritius.
But last week he called the move “the greatest act of stupidity”.
And he asked if the UK “needed the money” — when in fact it will cost billions to lease back a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.
Sir Keir said: “When the Trump administration came in, we paused for three months to give them time to consider the Chagos deal, which they did at agency level.
“And once they’d done that, they were very clear in their pronouncements about the fact that they supported the deal.
“Obviously this is about security and intelligence.
“And so it was an agency review that was conducted in the US.”
Last week Mr Trump questioned why Britain was ceding the strategically-important territory to China ally Mauritius, asking whether “they need the money”.
The UK is paying billions to Mauritius under the terms of the negotiation.
The Tories are trying to block the deal, including by trying to time it out in the House of Lords.
