Dame Harriett Baldwin questions the Foreign Office about the huge sums of money being talked about in relation to the negotiations of the transfer of sovereignty of the Chagos islands to Mauritius.
Dame Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)
It is outrageous that we only know the detailed speculation about this deal because of the briefing from the Mauritian Prime Minister to his Members of Parliament. It is outrageous that the amount of money being talked about now is £18 billion, which is enough to pay for the winter fuel allowance for all our pensioners for the next 12 years. The Minister will not tell this House the actual quantum of money that he is discussing with Mauritius. Can he put it on the record now, and can he tell us out of which departmental budget it needs to be paid?
The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Stephen Doughty)
I can tell the hon. Lady that the figure that she pulled out is categorically untrue. She had the answer in her question: she said “speculation”. There is a huge amount of speculation, and I would take the vast majority of it with a pinch of salt.