‘Put Down The Bong, Prime Minister!’: Republican Senator Kennedy Warns Britain Off Handing Indian Ocean Island Base Away to Chinese Interests

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to give away sovereign territory in the Indian Ocean which contains a strategically critical U.S. base is so “stupid” he must be on drugs to consider it, a Republican Senator says.

President Trump and the new U.S. Secretary of State (foreign affairs minister) Marco Rubio have been briefed on the Chagos Islands situation created by the British government, says U.S. Republican Senator from Louisiana John Kennedy — no relation to President John Kennedy — and that the dictates of the United Nations should be ignored.

Reminding others on the Senate floor (1hr 55m) of the importance of the British Indian Ocean Territory’s island of Diego Garcia, where a nominally Royal Air Force base is home to one of the most strategically important American bases outside of the U.S., the Senator said: “we use [Diego Garcia] to rearm and restock our submarines in the Indian Ocean to combat China. This kind of stupid takes a plan.”

Implying that Prime Minister Starmer must be on mind-altering substances to agree to the plan, Kennedy said — in comments highlighted by influential Westminster blog Guido Fawkes — that:

I’ve talked to President Trump about this, and I’ve talked to Marco Rubio about this, our esteemed new Secretary of State. And I’m hoping they are going to do something about it. The United Nations has no jurisdiction over the United Kingdom or us, America, and this is our military base… We need to stop this deal. President Trump and and Secretary Rubio need to pick up the phone and and call Prime Minister Starmer in the United Kingdom and say to to the Prime Minister: ‘Mr Prime Minister with all due respect stop dipping into your ketamine stash! Put down the bong. We need this military base to combat China. Don’t do it.

British territory since the early 19th century, captured from the French during the Napoleonic Wars, it is the intent of the left-wing government of Sir Keir Starmer to give the islands away to Mauritius following a United Nations ruling. While the British government is not obliged to pay heed to this decision, the UK Prime Minister is a lawyer by training and he and his inner circle are very much intellectually captured by the notion of ‘international law’ and are determined to pay Mauritius a great deal of money to take the Islands off Britain’s hands.

Kennedy characterised the UN’s sniping at Britain and the new left-wing administration’s willingness to fall in line: “The folks at the United Nations with their whey protein powder and man-purses, they said ‘bad United Kingdom! Bad United Kingdom! You’re a bunch of colonialists, give it back! Give the Chagos Islands back’… and the new government in the United Kingdom said ‘oh we feel so guilty, we’re gonna give it back’, and our Air Force base with it… The United Nations has no jurisdiction over the United Kingdom or us, America, and this is our military base”.

While the former administration of President Joe Biden appeared happy about the deal — the agreement of the last U.S. government to giving away the island with the Anglo-American base being frequently trumpeted by the British state as proof it is a good idea — the incoming administration of President Trump, who is more concerned about American interests, may be less cooperative. Trump ally and British parliamentarian Nigel Farage has previously warned the Trump team is outright hostile to the idea.

Apparent attempts to force the plan through before Trump’s inauguration have failed, however, and now it may be the case the Trump White House will have its say.