Member

The reason why we are here discussing this—let us be blunt—is the influence of a cabal of lawyers operating between Doughty Street Chambers and Matrix Chambers. They became so obsessed with the technical legal arguments, the rules-based world and territorial integrity that the Government have been persuaded by them, lost sight of the big moral picture and let the country down. The chief protagonists of course—I do not need to mention them again—are Philippe Sands and the Attorney-General. This argument about the legal issue that I have already mentioned does not wash with me when it comes to something so morally important as what we are doing to the Chagossian people. The public see just how shamefully this Government have behaved. I am very sorry that it has come to this. I hope that as a result of this discussion, this debate and the myriad amendments, even at this late stage, the Government might realise that they have gone too far, too quickly and are doing down the Chagossian people and, more importantly, even their own morality in the way they have behaved.