A deal that would see the UK hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius can go ahead, the High Court has said, after lifting a temporary block on the agreement.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had been due to sign the deal at a virtual ceremony with Mauritian government representatives on Thursday.
In a last-minute court injunction, issued at 02:25 BST, a High Court judge temporarily halted the agreement until a further court order.
However, at a fresh hearing the judge Mr Justice Chamberlain said the injunction should be discharged, clearing the way for the deal to be signed.
A UK government spokesperson welcomed the ruling, saying the agreement is “vital to protect the British people and our national security.”
The deal would see the UK give sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but allow the UK and US to continue using a military base located on the Indian Ocean archipelago for an initial period of 99 years.
The UK government is yet to set out the estimated payments the British taxpayer would make to Mauritius as part of the deal, but it is expected to run into the billions.
Defence Secretary John Healey is due to make a statement in Parliament on the future of the military base later.
The deal has attracted strong criticism from opposition politicians in the UK, who have questioned the cost and say an important military base should not be given to a country with close links to China.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the deal was an example of “Labour chaos”.
“We should not be paying to surrender British territory to Mauritius,” she said.
“The fact that Labour is negotiating something that sees the British taxpayer in hoc for potential billions is completely wrong.”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice joined a group of Chagossians outside the High Court, saying he wanted to see “another Starmer surrender sell out” stopped.
However, the Labour government has argued that ongoing questions about the UK’s right to keep the islands poses a risk to the future of the US-UK military base.
The legal action was brought by two Chagossian women, Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, who were both born on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, and would liketo be able to return.
In October, the two countries said that under the deal Mauritius would be “free to implement a programme of resettlement” on the islands, excluding Diego Garcia, which is home to the UK-US military base.
In a pre-action letter, lawyers for the two women said the Chagossian people had unlawfully not been given a say in the future of the islands, despite being the native inhabitants.
They also said that they did not trust Mauritius to treat the Chagossians fairly, and that they would face “severe obstacles” as British citizens who do not hold Mauritian nationality, including possible racial discrimination and the loss of the possibility of returning.
In a witness statement to the High Court, senior Foreign Office official Harriet Matthews said the delay had “caused harm to the UK’s reputation” with Mauritius and the US.
“We are now expending significant diplomatic effort to manage these implications and to reassure Mauritius and our partners that we are still committed to signing the agreement,” she added.
“Reneging on the agreed signature timeline threatens hard won defence and security conditions that are core to the operational effectiveness of the base.”
Dismissing the injunction, Mr Justice Chamberlain said “the public interest and the interests of the United Kingdom would be substantially prejudiced” by a continued block on the deal.
He also dismissed an application to pause the deal to allow the claimants to take their case to the Court of Appeal.
Following the court’s decision, Ms Pompe said it was “a very very sad day” but added: “We are not giving up.”
“We don’t want to give our rights, hand over our rights to Mauritius. We’re not Mauritians,” she said.
