Newslinks for Friday 23rd May 2025

Chagos and the £30bn price tag

“Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to give away the Chagos Islands will cost the UK up to £30 billion. On Thursday, the Prime Minister was accused of “lying to the public” as he announced the agreement to give the Indian Ocean island chain to Mauritius and rent back a key military base. He claimed that the deal would cost £101 million annually, amounting to £3.4 billion over 99 years. However, the true cost will probably exceed £30 billion in cash terms because of rising inflation and additional schemes to fund development projects in Mauritius. The UK will also be obliged to give notice if it plans to launch an attack from the Diego Garcia military base under the deal, which critics opposed because of security concerns over the close ties between Mauritius, China and Russia.” – Daily Telegraph

• Sir Keir Starmer accused of signing ‘one of the worst deals in the history of deals’ after surrendering the Chagos islands for ‘as much as £30billion’ – Daily Mail
• Keir Starmer accused of ‘lying to British public’ as Chagos deal to cost up to £30bn – Daily Express
• The maths behind Starmer’s Chagos sleight of hand – Daily Telegraph

Comment:

• I just left a No. 10 briefing and this Chagos Islands deal is apocalyptically bad – Christian Calgie, Daily Express
• Lawyer Starmer’s last hope to kill off Chagos deal is lost – Fraser Nelson, The Times

> Today: Chagos, again. How do you even commentate on this government?

> Yesterday: Chagos, China, and what was set to be a British betrayal

Tories attack sentencing review for insulting victims and gimmick castration policy

“Sarah Everard’s heartbroken parents declared there is no “excuse for letting the worst offenders get out of prison even” earlier as fury erupted over the biggest sentencing reforms in a generation. Killers and rapists will be let out of prison earlier and criminals will be rewarded for good behaviour behind bars, the Government confirmed. Labour’s sentencing tsar, David Gauke, recommended criminals sentenced to more than four years should be let out after serving just half of their jail term behind bars. Campaigners branded it an “insult to victims”.” – Daily Express

• Releasing paedos & violent criminals from jail early will bring CHAOS to streets, police chiefs slam in scathing letter – The Sun
• Labour set to free killers and rapists earlier under new soft-justice masterplan branded ‘recipe for a crimewave’ by the Tories – Daily Mail
• Doctors ‘will refuse to carry out mandatory chemical castration’ – The Times
• How would chemical castration policy work — and could it ever go ahead? – The Times
• From ‘taking back our streets’ to early release for killers and sex offenders – proof Labour have gone soft on justice – Daily Mail

Comment:

• This shameful plan to cut prison sentences must not pass – Robert Jenrick, Daily Telegraph
• I wish I’d been castrated years ago: Shocking words of a rapist who’s had it done as we reveal the truth of Labour’s plans for paedophiles – Tom Leonard, Daily Mail
• Chemical castration finding itself in Labour’s in-tray tells us all we need to know – Robert Taylor, Daily Express

> Yesterday: Badenoch and Jenrick: The case for tougher sentencing

Labour’s tax divide continues

“Angela Rayner urged Rachel Reeves to strip middle-class families of child benefit payments, The Telegraph can reveal. The Deputy Prime Minister pressed the Treasury to “claw back” the benefit from households where the highest earner’s salary was between £50,000 and £80,000. That would reverse an announcement by the Conservatives in March 2024 that was predicted to save half a million families an average of £1,300 a year. Ms Rayner’s proposal was contained in the same leaked memo, first reported by The Telegraph on Tuesday, in which she suggested eight tax rises and a curb on benefits for recently arrived immigrants.” – Daily Telegraph

• Angela Rayner’s leaked memo: read in full – Daily Telegraph
• Labour’s tax raid to trap 1.5bn barrels of oil and gas under North Sea – Daily Telegraph 
• Britain braces for tax hikes as Rachel Reeves borrows more – Daily Express
• Starmer and top aide clash over £2.5bn benefit cap – Bloomberg
• Two child benefit cap set to be watered down – but won’t be scrapped entirely – The i

Comment:

• Is Angela Rayner positioning herself for a Starmer succession race? – Jessica Elgot and Kiran Stacey, The Guardian
• Reeves hasn’t ‘fixed the economic foundations’ – she’s presiding over a looming disaster that could be as bad as Greece – Alex Brummer, Daily Mail
• Labour’s trilemma: it only has bad choices left – David Frost, Daily Telegraph
• Angela Rayner has overreached – but her ultimate prize could be the leadership – Kitty Donaldson, The i
• Labour’s tax policies are hitting the companies they need to build homes – Steven Mulholland, CityAM

Doctors and nurses strike looms

“Doctors have threatened to go back on strike and nurses could follow, after above-inflation pay rises failed to quell fears of another disruptive bout of industrial action in public services. More than two million public sector workers have been promised increases ranging from 3.6 per cent to 6 per cent — but the health service, schools and other services have been told to find £2 billion in savings to fund them. Ministers said they wanted to ensure staff were “properly recognised”, but were greeted with a wave of fury from union leaders. Nurses, awarded 3.6 per cent, said it was “grotesque” that doctors had again been given a bigger increase.” – The Times

• Ministers brace for NHS strikes after doctors denounce ‘derisory’ pay rise – The Guardian

News in brief:

• Criminals will love Labour’s prison reforms – Dominic Adler, Unherd
• Is chemically castrating sex offenders really a good idea? – Catriona Olding, The Spectator
• Keir Starmer was right to cut the winter fuel allowance – Charles Amos, The Critic
• How to fix the housing crisis? We’ve told the government again and again and again – Simon Gerrard, CityAM