CHAGOS SURRENDER UPDATE
Labour has just pulled Monday’s vote in the House of Lords.
The @ Conservatives had put out a three-line Whip - an exceptional step in the Upper House, taken perhaps once every three or four years - and ministers evidently concluded that their Bill would fall.
We have secured a breathing space.
It is now up to Trump and the people around him.
If the president sticks to what he said this week, the deal is off.
If he allows himself to be talked around by the State Department’s permanent officials, it will come back.
In any event, the man who deserves credit for winning the parliamentary battle, almost completely outside the public eye, is Lord@MartinCallanan, who led for the Tories.
In terms of procedure, he played an absolute blinder, drawing things out expertly to give opponents time to organise.
I am proud of all those who were involved in the campaign, especially Claire and the @GreatBritishPAC
.
And, most of all, of the Chagossians themselves. Thank you. Mersi ek felisitasion
It is, I admit, a humiliating thing for Britain that the final decision should be in the hands of our American allies.
We ought to have put a stop to the whole business ourselves.
Still, for the first time in 14 months, I am starting to think we might win.
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