Stephen Doughty

Stephen Doughty

Labour (Co-op) — Cardiff South and Penarth

Speaking in the House of Commons on 20 January 2026

Debate

Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill

Contribution

I am not going to take any more interventions at the moment. I need to make some progress. Lords amendment 5 would require the Secretary of State to publish the total real-terms costs of payments made under the treaty, including the methodology used by the Government Actuary’s Department and the Treasury. I confess that it brings me some satisfaction to learn that the Opposition have eventually accepted the importance of quoting financial figures for a 99-year treaty in real terms. They have always known that it is misleading to ignore the impact of inflation—a pound today is not worth the same as a pound in 99 years’ time—and now at long last they seem to have seen the light. Let us see whether, in today’s debate, we can do away with the deliberately and misleadingly inflated figures that have been bandied about again by the shadow Foreign Secretary during questions today, and start discussing the financial elements of the treaty with accuracy and transparency.

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