Andrew has expressed his concern in the House of Commons at the Labour government’s giveaway of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Andrew contended to the Minister of State for Development, Anneliese Dodds, during a debate on Spanish border checks in Gibraltar on Monday (14 October), “The unforced surrender of the Chagos islands casts a long shadow, does it not? Are we seriously to believe that the timing of the Government of Spain’s action in respect of Gibraltar has nothing to do with the unforced error that the Government have committed in recent days? Is it not the case that this Government will always put ideology, virtue signalling and post-colonial guilt ahead of the defence and security of this country?”
Yesterday, Monday 21 October, Dr Murrison expressed further concern about a deal between the governments of the UK and St Helena to deport migrants who arrive in the Chagos Islands to St Helena before the islands are officially handed over to Mauritius: “Since no migrants have arrived in British Indian Ocean Territory since 2022, and given that this agreement lapses after 18 months, what is the problem that the Minister is trying to solve? And given that Rwanda was apparently considered immoral and this is not, is he not simply offering an insult to Kigali?”
Andrew, a former minister in the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence who represents a garrison town (Warminster), believes that the Chagos giveaway was unnecessary and threatens the future of the Falklands and Gibraltar and the UK’s position on the Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) in Cyprus, which it holds as part of its defence presence.