LABOUR is under fire for masking the true cost of handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Taxpayers will spend £34.7million on a 99-year lease of the archipelago’s military base , a freedom of information request reveals.
But yesterday Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the government does “not recognise” that figure.
She told GB News: “The Prime Minister has been forthright in saying the true cost of this is £3.4billion.”
Defending the deal as vital to national security, she added: “The US is on board with this agreement to make sure we can maintain the Diego Garcia base for national security.”
But Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride slammed the government’s assurances on the cost of leasing the base as “totally and utterly unacceptable”.
He said: “They want to make the numbers look smaller.
“We don’t think that’s being straight with the British people.”
The £34.7billion figure — obtained by the Government Actuary’s Department — is the lease’s total cost over 99 years.
Financial experts estimate it is the equivalent to around £10billion in today’s money, once the effects on inflation have been stripped out.
But that’s still nearly three times the figure given by Sir Keir Starmer .
A Government spokesman said: “The Diego Garcia military base is essential to the security of the UK and our key allies.
“The average cost is £101million per year, and the net present value of payments is £3.4billion — less than 0.2 per cent of the annual defence budget.
“The costs compare favourably with other international military base agreements.”
