A group fighting for the rights of Britain's overseas territories have written to Donald Trump's new cabinet members to demand they block the handover.

U.S. President-elect Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Mark Rubio, told POLITICO last month that he fears the deal would boost China and warned the agreement poses “a serious threat” to U.S. national security. The Independent reported Wednesday that Trump's new team could even try to veto the deal.

The UK's deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius will be met with "outright hostility” by the Trump administration, Nigel Farage has predicted. The Reform UK leader, a supporter and friend of the incoming US president, told MPs the agreement would put the UK at odds with an important ally.

Donald Trump has appointed a leading critic of the UK’s Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius as his national security adviser, in the clearest indication yet that the president-elect will oppose the plan.

The Reform UK leader, a top cheerleader for the hard right Republican, branded a deal to give the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius 'an enormous mistake'.