Responding to the Government statement on the negotiations of the transfer of sovereignty of the Chagos islands to Mauritius, former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly calls on the Government to ensure we get a good deal and walk away if that is not the case.
Mr James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)
The Minister, like the Prime Minister before him, keeps implying that if Members of this House were armed with the same information that they were armed with, they would come to the same decision. Well, I was armed with the information that the Minister has at his disposal; I did not come to the same decision, and neither did my direct successor, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton. Do the Minister, the other Ministers in the Government and the officials who work on their behalf understand that the point of a negotiation is not to get any deal but to get a good deal, and that if you do not get a good deal you should walk away from the table, as we did?
The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Stephen Doughty)
As I said earlier, the right hon. Gentleman recognised that there was a problem, he started the negotiating process, and they went through 11 rounds. This is a good deal, and that is why we have agreed it.