In an embarrassing blow to Keir Starmer's Government, the new Prime Minister of Mauritius has rejected a deal to cede UK sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory - which prompted an Urgent Question in the House of Commons by Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel.
Speaking in the House of Commons on the Urgent Question, Dr Neil Hudson, the Epping Forest MP, branded it an "ill-judged and regrettable policy decision" which would see British sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory relinquished to Mauritius.
The islands have been under British rule since 1814 and due to their strategic location, right in the centre of the Indian Ocean, are incredibly critical and house the UK's only military base in the Indo-Pacific.
If ceded to Mauritius, Dr Hudson and his Conservative colleagues highlighted the potentially devastating impact on international security with other global players - many malign actors - filling gaps left by British power. Moreover it sets a dangerous precedent for overseas territories such as the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar.
The initial decision was made when Parliament was not sitting, a treaty has not been published, it is not clear how much money the UK will provide Mauritius every year and there has been no assurance that malign foreign powers cannot use the islands for their own military endeavours.
For Dr Hudson though, this is just the most recent iteration of a pattern of government failure and a refusal to make admissions of wrongdoing.
In the Chamber, Dr Hudson asked the question:
"Yet again this new Labour Government rushed into an ill-judged and regrettable policy decision to cede the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, against expert advice and with no regard to the wishes of the Chagossians in this country and elsewhere.
"Like their awful policies on scrapping the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners, the heartless Family Farm Tax and their Jobs Tax. will the Government now show some leadership, admit that they have got this wrong, scrap this deal and keep this vital territory under British control to protect UK interests, the marine environment and ultimately global security in an increasingly unstable and dangerous world?"
Speaking afterwards, Dr Hudson added:
"I know people up and down the land are disturbed that the UK Government would even consider ceding strategic British territory. Our international standing depends in part on our military capabilities around the entire world, and so to relinquish a key naval and airbase complex with global instability as high as ever, is a deeply retrograde decision.
"This is just the latest in a long line of mis-steps by the new Labour administration which has repeatedly failed to judge the national mood on key issues. As I said in the Chamber it has been failure after failure - with pensioners, farmers, entrepreneurs and taxpayers paying the price."
