When David Lammy announced that the Chagos Islands were to be handed over to Mauritius, it was greeted as the moment when the sun finally set on the British Empire. But a group of hardy peers are determined to rage, rage against the dying of the light, by doing their damnedest to hold up the Chagos sell-out in the Upper House. Talk about teaching their elected equivalents a thing or two about the merits of proper legislative scrutiny…

For a week after passing several critical amendments of the deal, the Lords were tonight at it again. The Upper House issued a rare rebuke of the Chagos Islands deal, passing a motion of regret that said the agreement ‘creates uncertainty’ over the future use of the Diego Garcia military base and ‘imposes £35bn of costs’ on taxpayers. The motion also declared that that Chagossian people were not adequately consulted before the deal was struck. Indeed, given Labour’s recent outcry over Greenland, Steerpike wonders why the noble principle of self-determination is applicable in the North Atlantic, but not in the southern climates of Indian Ocean…

The Bill did pass the third reading stage in the Lords, with the legislation returning to the Commons for MPs to vote on the Lords’ amendments. Tory sources are briefing that the four amendments passed means a decent period of ‘ping pong’ where a fair few tools will be at the disposal of opponents of the Chagos deal. Failing that, there is always the high court bid – and even the possibility of an intervention by Donald Trump, after whom the Chagossians have promised to name an island.

Given all the fuss, Mr S just has to ask the obvious again: why is Labour so keen to ram this deal through?