Tory leadership race ignites over Chagos Islands row

The Tory leadership race ignited today as two rivals clashed over Britain's deal to give up sovereignty of the strategically important Chagos Islands.

Amid a fierce battle to make it to the final pairing in the Conservative contest, Tom Tugendhat blasted James Cleverly for his past actions while foreign secretary.

He hit out at Mr Cleverly after the Government announced it had reached a political agreement with Mauritius following two years of negotiations.

Despite much of his anger being directed at Labour, Mr Tugendhat pointed out that the talks began when Mr Cleverly was in charge of the Foreign Office.

Under Labour's deal, Mauritius will assume sovereignty over the Chagos Islands - also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory.

But a joint US-UK military base will remain on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, with the Foreign Office saying the agreement means the status of the base will be undisputed and legally secure.

There has been Tory outrage at the deal, with Sir Keir Starmer accused of 'surrendering' the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

The Prime Minister was slammed for a 'dangerous capitulation' that will hand British territory to 'an ally of Beijing'.

Mr Tugendhat branded the agreement 'a shameful retreat undermining our security and leaving our allies exposed' - but also directed his anger at Mr Cleverly.

'This deal not only threatens our security but also undermines our allies, opening the possibility of China gaining a military foothold in the Indian Ocean,' Mr Tugendhat said.

He noted how the negotiations over the Chagos Islands were 'initiated during Liz Truss's premiership', when Mr Cleverly was foreign secretary. 

He added: 'These negotiations should never have started, as the ICJ [International Court of Justice] had no jurisdiction to challenge the UK's sovereignty and its advisory opinion is non-binding under international law.

'It compromises both our national security and the stability of the region.

'Lord Cameron rightly intervened and stopped these negotiations but Labour's total failure of leadership and strategic vision has left our Indian Ocean allies vulnerable.' 

Mr Tugendhat, speaking to BBC Radio 4's World At One programme, said he objected to the negotiations happening when they began in 2022.

'I objected on many occasions,' he added. 'This is another area where I'm afraid we're seeing legalism replacing leadership.

'We saw this legalism in the Foreign Office in November 2022 when the Foreign Office was pushing for this and nobody stopped it until, finally, we got leadership under Lord Cameron.'

Allies of Mr Tugendhat compared the Chagos Islands announcement to a 'last-minute own goal' after Mr Cleverly's well-received speech to the Conservative Party  conference yesterday.

They suggested Mr Cleverly was among a 'few secretaries of state' who 'wanted this to happen'.

'I feel a bit sorry for him because the speech did go down well,' one Tugendhat ally said.

'He is a nice bloke but this reflects on him. You need to be more than a nice bloke to be a good PM.'

But allies of Mr Cleverly pushed back and pointed to past reporting that he was 'surprised' by Ms Truss's decision to authorise negotiations over the Chagos Islands.

They also said that Mr Cleverly and other senior ministers agreed, after the initial formal negotiations began, that there would not be an acceptable agreement.

During his 14 months in the Foreign Office, Mr Cleverly did not sign off a deal on the archipelago.

A source said: 'There is no point pretending this is anything other than Labour's deal. It is a sign of Keir Starmer and David Lammy's awful negotiating.

'In Government, Labour has lost fights with the unions and now lost a strategically important negotiation with the Mauritian government. They don't know what they're doing.'

The row between Mr Cleverly and Mr Tugendhat came after Mr Cleverly had declared himself the 'frontrunner' in the Tory leadership race as MPs prepare to whittle down the field of candidates to a final pairing.

The former foreign secretary, who later served as home secretary, claimed he was ahead in the contest after clinching a standing ovation at the party's conference in Birmingham yesterday.

Mr Cleverly also said he had shown 'you can be a winner without being a b******' following his address to Conservative members.

From the four remaining leadership contenders - Mr Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Mr Tugendhat - two will be knocked out of the contest next week.

Tory MPs will vote on their return to Parliament, following their three-week break for party conferences, to determine the final two candidates.

Allies of Mr Cleverly are confident he can squeeze out Ms Badenoch to take on Mr Jenrick, who has so far attracted the most support among MPs, in the last stage of the contest.

Mr Tugendhat, seen as the outsider in the leadership race, is widely expected to be eliminated next week despite figures showing he has so far attracted the biggest financial backing.

One ally of Mr Cleverly suggested he would pick up the support of those Conservative MPs who previously backed Mel Stride, who was knocked out in the previous round of voting.

'If you like Mel because he's experienced, a good communicator, has a vision and knows what he's doing, can I introduce you to James Cleverly?' they told Politico.

The four remaining candidates will face the verdict of MPs after spending four days in Birmingham making their case to the wider Conservative Party.

Each were given the chance to address conference delegates on the final day of the party's gathering, with Mr Cleverly judged to have performed best by many observers.

Speaking after his conference address, Mr Cleverly suggested he was reaping the rewards of his 'relentlessly optimistic' campaign.

He told the Political Currency podcast: 'We have allowed the idea that to be a true conservative, you have to you have to somehow be angry or grumpy, and I don't buy into that.

'You can be positive and energetic and Tory. You can be a winner without, pardon my French, being a b******.

'My campaign has been run on a relentlessly optimistic ticket. I am literally proving my hypothesis.

'No blue on blue. No backbiting. If we get punched, we do not punch back anyone.

'If anyone briefs against one of my colleagues, they're off the campaign team, and now I am the frontrunner going into the next stage of the elections.'

Mr Jenrick remains the bookies' favourite to be elected the next Tory leader, with the former immigration minister having won both rounds of MPs' voting so far.

But it appears there will be a nailbiting race between Mr Cleverly and Ms Badenoch to join Mr Jenrick in the final pairing.

Once MPs have chosen the last two candidates, the party's wider membership will be balloted to elect a winner.

The new Tory leader will then be announced on 2 November.

Mr Tugendhat topped the list of donations among the Tory leadership candidates, receiving more than £150,000 for his campaign.

He declared more than £152,508.22 in the most recent declaration of MPs' interests published yesterday, followed closely by Mr Jenrick who declared £134,376 of new donations.

Mr Cleverly and Ms Badenoch received £89,000 and £40,000 respectively.