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Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Thursday, the 22nd of May, there were angry words over the government's deal to hand over the Chegos Islands in the Indian Ocean with the UK-US base on Diego Garcia.

Who wouldn't want a little piece of Diego Garcia?

Turquoise seas, powder-white beaches fringed with palm trees, and that's not all.

Diego Garcia is unique.

We do things there that we simply could not do anywhere else.

The Defence Secretary John Healy. Its airfield allows for strike

operations and rapid deployments to the Middle East, to East Africa, to South Asia. Its deepwater port

supports missions from nuclear-powered submarines to our carrier strike group. His list went on. After a

middle of the night hitched with a high court

injunction, the government's now signed a deal handing the Chegos Islands and the strategically

critical UK-US military base on Diego Garcia to Mauritius. We're leasing Diego Garcia back for at

least 99 years. The government says this is necessary because doubt about

who legally owns the islands could have led to the UK losing the base. John Healy said the UK's

security depended on the facility and on this deal. Anyone who would abandon this deal would abandon

the base. They would weaken the security of the British people

and they would weaken the strength of the British armed forces.

By signing this deal, the British flag will fly over the Diego Garcia base

well into the next century.

The talks leading to this deal began under the previous government,

but Conservatives say they would not have signed it

...