MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Farage proposes offering Trump Diego Garcia in exchange for his silence on the Falklands

“I’d have gone in and said, ‘Right, you know what mate? Chagos, it’s yours. Diego Garcia, in perpetuity, the most strategic American military base in the world’,” Farage said

Reform UK leader c has said that, if he were prime minister, he would offer US President Donald Trump the use in perpetuity of the Diego Garcia military base, in the Chagos archipelago, in exchange for him to stop talking about the Falklands. The proposal sparked a clash with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who called it “humiliating”, and prompted the White House to come to Farage’s defence.

“I’d have gone in and said, ‘Right, you know what mate? Chagos, it’s yours. Diego Garcia, in perpetuity, the most strategic American military base in the world’,” Farage told the US podcast The Benny Show. “In return, just please stop talking about the Falkland Islands. I know you like Milei, but this really matters to us. And there’s a trade, you see.”

Badenoch responded in The Telegraph: “Giving away British territory in return for someone keeping quiet is not a deal. It is humiliating.” She added that “the Chagos Islands are British, and the Falklands are British and will remain British, regardless of what the American president says”, calling Farage’s remarks “careless, loose talk from a man who wants to be responsible for Britain’s national security”.

Farage didn't say that Trump/USA could use the Chagos Islands in perpetuity. In his interview he literally said he would trade the Chagos Islands for the Falklands. Reform officials and Farage can deny it all they like, but the evidence is right there and cannot be altered. https://t.co/84HYJw12sf

— Thomas Evans @Renewal2030 (@ThomasEvansAdur) October 14, 2026

Farage replied on X that Badenoch “is lying again” and said he would offer the United States the use of Diego Garcia, not sovereignty over the archipelago, in return for America going “quiet on the Falklands”. A White House official quoted by The Times agreed: “He was obviously referring to the use of the Diego Garcia military base, which is critical to countering threats from China and Iran,” and accused Badenoch of peddling fake news and undermining the Anglo-American relationship.

The agreement signed by the British government in 2025 to transfer sovereignty over Chagos to Mauritius, with a 99-year lease for the base, is on hold following Trump’s opposition. The row comes amid an escalating dispute over the Sea Lion oil project: on Tuesday, Overseas Territories Minister Uma Kumaran told the House of Commons that Prime Minister Andy Burnham had raised with Trump the islanders’ wish to remain British.