SHADOW Business Secretary Andrew Griffith is right to intervene on the handover of the Chagos Islands, describing the proposed deal as “self-sabotage”.
Andrew Griffith told GB News: “President Trump is absolutely right on this, not on everything, but on this he’s absolutely right. Giving away the British Indian Ocean Territory is an act of great self-harm, self-sabotage. It damages our national security.
“There are assets in Diego Garcia that can see parts of the sky and parts of the radio spectrum that no others can. The idea that British taxpayers will be paying Mauritius, which has never run the islands, to take these away from our sovereign territory, and we, the Conservatives, have always opposed this deal from the very beginning.
“It’s a terrible deal. President Trump is right, but it shouldn’t need President Trump to tell our Prime Minister that this is the wrong deal to be doing.”
Asked if the Conservatives are facing extinction following the recent defections to Reform UK, he said: “Absolutely not. You’re seeing a Conservative Party with a renewed sense of purpose, focus and unity.
“I, like my colleagues, are here in Westminster because we want to fix some of the challenges that our country faces, challenges like today’s unemployment figures, up for the 14th month in a row, youth unemployment reaching really tragic levels, the low growth that the UK is slipping down the league tables, as the IMF published yesterday, and of course, the crisis that’s going on in our high streets, particularly pubs, hospitality, but all small high street businesses that are the real bedrock of the economy in this country, ordinary people doing extraordinary things in ordinary communities.
“So that’s what we are focused on. I was at a meeting with Kemi last night. The morale was good, and people have got a very purposeful attitude and respect her leadership and principles.”
On today’s unemployment figures, he said: “It’s a real worry, 14 consecutive months, almost the whole of this government, unemployment has been rising, youth unemployment in particular, and such jobs as are being created are in the less productive public sector. So the government’s going in completely the wrong direction.
“You’ll remember just before Christmas, so not even reflected in these numbers, they passed a 330-page red tape unemployment bill that’s going to deter hiring from employers. Then we had the Budget, again, not reflected in these figures. Completely the wrong direction.
“We need some radical deregulation. Everything in this country takes too long. We’re not on the side of risk takers and wealth creators, and it’s all the Chancellor’s policies that are doing this. She shouldn’t be zooming off to Davos to hobnob with global elites when she has left a crisis in her wake here on UK high streets.”
Asked about the controversy over Greenland: “Yeah, on this, the Prime Minister has our cross-party support. We don’t think it’s right to get into economic tit for tat. Tariffs would damage the cost of living here in the UK, as well as the interests of our great British exporters.
“But where he could go much, much further is to immediately shelve his damaging self-harm, giving away the Chagos Islands. That’s not going to get respect in the eyes of the US. Security comes through a strong defence, through a commitment to our own national security.
“Giving away or even paying Mauritius to take away the British Indian Ocean Territory with its Diego Garcia US base is sending all the wrong signals it has from the start, and the Prime Minister should be U-turning now on that to show some strength, show some backbone.”
