Britain needs to abandon its delusions of empire – giving up the Chagos Islands is a good start | Simon Jenkins

Labour says it is committed to other ‘overseas territories’, but why? These colonial-era dreams are costing the country dear

The British empire still sends governments mad. Labour’s Foreign Office minister in charge of its lasting shreds, Stephen Doughty, has granted the isolated Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to the sovereignty of independent Mauritius. This modest act of decolonisation makes sense. But the government wants to retain a joint US-UK military base there. Why? Britain no longer ...