Chagos Islands injunction should be discharged, High Court judge says
22 May 2025, 13:12 | Updated: 22 May 2025, 13:21
A temporary block on the Government from concluding its negotiations over the Chagos Islands should be discharged, a High Court judge has said.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The deal, which would see Britain give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius and lease back a crucial military base there, was due to be signed on Thursday morning but was temporarily blocked by an injunction hours before.
Mr Justice Goose granted an injunction at 2.25am against the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for “interim relief” to Bertrice Pompe, one of two British women born on the Chagos Islands who is set to bring legal action against the Government over the deal.
After an urgent hearing on Thursday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the injunction should be discharged.
He said: “I have concluded that the stay granted by Mr Justice Goose should be discharged and there should be no further interim relief.”
During the hearing, Philip Rule KC, for Ms Pompe, had asked for the block on concluding the deal to continue to prevent “significant prejudice to the claimant”.
Read more: Where are the Chagos Islands?
Read more: Government banned from signing Chagos Islands deal after High Court injunction
Mr Rule, appearing by video link from New York, later said it was “fanciful” to say that the deal would not be able to go ahead on a date other than Thursday.
He said: “The objectives of both sides will not have changed… They are not going to abandon that claim in the next two or three weeks.”
Mr Justice Chamberlain, summarising a document given to the court by the Government, said: “The agreement can be concluded today and it does not necessarily have to be at 9am.”
He then asked Sir James Eadie KC, for the FCDO, whether “the agreement can still be concluded if it is concluded today”.
Sir James confirmed that was the case.
He later said: “My instructions from Number 10 are that we need a decision by 1pm today if we are to sign today, and everybody is standing by.”
Misley Mandarin, a Chagossian who runs the group BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territory) Citizens, said he is “very disappointed” by the High Court ruling which has paved the way for the Government’s Chagos Islands deal to be signed.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Mandarin said in response to the ruling: “Well, very disappointed, but the fight continues.
“We’ve been fighting more than 50 years. Like I said earlier, no retreat, no surrender. We will fight to the end…we will not, never, never let our island, a British Island, to go to Mauritius.”
Asked if he hoped for further legal action, he said: “Definitely.”
“We will try to talk to the Government again, if it don’t listen to us,” Mr Mandarin said.
“We are ready, ready to go to the fight to the end.”
A Government spokesperson welcomed a High Court ruling paving the way for the Chagos Islands deal to be signed, saying the agreement is “vital to protect the British people and our national security.”
