LONDON — Nigel Farage is off to Mar-a-Lago hoping to lobby the Trump administration in a week when the U.S. president’s relations with Keir Starmer appear to have hit rock bottom.
The leader of the right-wing Reform UK opposition party has promised to raise his opposition to the prime minister’s controversial Chagos Islands sovereignty deal — a major point of contention with the president — with whoever he sees in Florida on Friday night.
Farage has been one of several high-profile figures on the right of British politics who has been aggressively lobbying against the proposal to end the long-running colonial dispute.
“President Trump has almost understood the deal — almost — but I will be dining at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow night and will reinforce the message, it was the worst deal in history,” Farage told a “Save Chagos” boat party in London on Thursday night.
An itinerary for Farage’s visit has not been made public by his party, and it was not immediately clear who he would be dining with. Farage will be hoping to get face time with senior officials if not with Trump himself. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It comes in the week Starmer has felt the president’s fury over both war in Iran and the Chagos Islands agreement. The president belittled Starmer as being “no Winston Churchill” after the U.K. initially blocked the U.S. from striking Iran from some British bases.
Trump has also expressed his anger at the deal to hand sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius. Starmer argues his lease-back deal is the only way to secure the U.K.-U.S. military base on Diego Garcia.
Starmer hasn’t spoken to Trump since a call they shared on Saturday. Since then, the PM has made clear Britain will not be joining in airstrikes on Iran, arguing he does not believe in “regime change from the skies.” He did relent to allow limited use of British bases to strike Iranian missile stores. British ambassador to D.C. Christian Turner did meet Trump ally and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham for discussion on Iran and Ukraine this week.
Defence Secretary John Healey has meanwhile issued stern criticism of opposition politicians who have gone to America to lobby the Trump administration against the government’s Chagos deal. He told reporters with him on a trip to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which was hit by an Iranian drone strike over the weekend, they are acting in an “unpatriotic” manner that “undermines Britain.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel held talks with U.S. officials, national security advisers and senators on Chagos and Iran while visiting D.C. last week.
“The matter of the use of Diego Garcia in possible strikes on Iran was also discussed,” said one senior Conservative official briefed on the trip and granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
“Consistently, we were informed of the administration’s fury on Starmer’s position on the surrender of Diego Garcia and how they viewed Starmer as undermining the special relationship.”
POLITICO has previously reported that former PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss also lobbied Trump to block the Chagos deal.
Farage heads to Mar-a-Lago as Starmer-Trump relations plummet
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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