Middle East
Middle East policy and conflicts
Based on 6 parliamentary votes
Related Defence and Foreign Affairs Issues
How Parties Voted on Middle East
Government alignment shows how often each party voted with the government's stated position. Issue-aligned direction shows agreement with the AI-identified supportive stance.
Recent Votes
| Vote | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|
MPs voted on whether to reject a change made by the House of Lords to the Diego Garcia Military Base Bill. The Lords had added Amendment 6 to place additional conditions or constraints on the deal; the government asked the Commons to overturn it in order to proceed with the agreement as negotiated. Yes = Support the government's position to remove the Lords' additional condition from the Bill, backing the deal as negotiated without further parliamentary constraints imposed by the Lords · No = Support the Lords' amendment, wanting additional safeguards or conditions written into the legislation governing the Diego Garcia military base agreement Govt: Aye | 346-185 | 20 Jan 2026 |
MPs voted on whether to reject a Lords amendment that would have required the government to publish the full inflation-adjusted costs of payments to Mauritius under the Diego Garcia treaty, including the methodology used to calculate them. The government argued the financial details were already publicly available; the opposition said the government had never been transparent about the true costs to British taxpayers. Yes = Support rejecting the Lords amendment, trusting that existing published financial information is sufficient and no additional transparency requirement is needed · No = Support the Lords amendment requiring the government to publish full real-terms costs and methodology of the Diego Garcia treaty payments, arguing greater transparency for taxpayers is essential Govt: Aye | 348-188 | 20 Jan 2026 |
MPs voted on whether to reject a Lords amendment to the Diego Garcia/British Indian Ocean Territory Bill. Lords Amendment 1 would have added conditions around notifying Mauritius about military activities on the base, which critics argued would compromise operational security and undermine British sovereignty over the territory. Yes = Support rejecting the Lords amendment, backing the government's deal with Mauritius as negotiated without additional notification requirements that could constrain military operations at Diego Garcia · No = Support keeping the Lords amendment, arguing it provides important safeguards or alternatively opposing the entire deal as a surrender of British sovereignty that weakens the strategic value of the base Govt: Aye | 345-183 | 20 Jan 2026 |
MPs voted on whether to give initial approval to a Bill implementing the UK-Mauritius treaty signed in May 2025, which grants Mauritius sovereignty over the Chagos Islands (British Indian Ocean Territory) in exchange for a 99-year lease guaranteeing continued UK and US military access to the Diego Garcia base. Yes = Support the Chagos Islands treaty and the legislation needed to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius while securing long-term UK military control of Diego Garcia · No = Oppose the Chagos Islands deal, arguing the terms are too costly or concede too much sovereignty, or that the strategic and legal risks outweigh the benefits of securing the base Govt: Aye | 328-181 | 9 Sept 2025 |
MPs voted on a 'reasoned amendment' — a procedural motion to block the second reading of a Bill implementing the Chagos Islands treaty, which grants Mauritius sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory while securing a 99-year lease guaranteeing UK (and US) continued control of the Diego Garcia military base. Voting Aye would have rejected the Bill at this early stage; the majority voted No to allow the Bill to proceed. Yes = Oppose the Chagos treaty and its implementing Bill, arguing the deal is not in the UK's national or security interest and should not proceed · No = Support proceeding with the Bill to implement the Chagos treaty, arguing the 99-year guarantee of Diego Garcia's operational control secures UK and allied defence interests Govt: No | 118-333 | 9 Sept 2025 |
An Opposition Day debate and vote on the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) deal, likely relating to the UK government's controversial agreement to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The result suggests the government defeated the opposition motion criticising its approach. Yes = Support the opposition motion criticising the government's handling of the Chagos Islands/BIOT sovereignty deal, opposing the terms negotiated with Mauritius · No = Reject the opposition motion, backing the government's position on the Chagos Islands deal and its approach to negotiations over BIOT Govt: No | 148-299 | 26 Feb 2025 |
How is this calculated?
Government alignment (primary bar) shows how often a party's MPs voted with the government's stated position on this issue. This is the most comparable metric across parties, as it measures the same reference point for everyone.
Issue-aligned direction (secondary bar) shows how often MPs voted in the direction tagged as supportive of this issue by AI analysis. For example, if a vote is tagged “pro-environment”, a Yes vote counts as aligned. This can be misleading when the tagged direction happens to align with opposition amendments rather than government bills.
Why these metrics may differ: Opposition parties often vote against government bills for strategic or procedural reasons, even when they broadly support the policy area. The government alignment metric makes this clearer by showing the actual voting pattern against a consistent reference.
Source: Commons division data from the UK Parliament Votes API. Alignment direction determined by AI analysis of vote stance tags. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.