Donald Trump’s team are seeking assurances that the controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius will not be completed before his inauguration in January.

The Independent recently revealed that the president-elect is looking for ways to veto the agreement because of concerns over its security implications in the Indian Ocean with the crucial joint UK/US base on Diego Garcia.

There are also concerns that the deal struck by Sir Keir Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy will allow China access to the islands to build their own rival base.

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Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has suggested that the UK is “taking too long” to get big projects completed.

Asked at the CBI annual conference how long projects such as roadbuilding or housebuilding should take, she said: “I think the question about how long should we take is (…) it’s like asking how long is a piece of string.

“We are taking too long, we know we are taking too long because when I was business secretary many investors would complain about how long it took to get anything done in the UK versus Spain versus Italy.”

She said that “we should be looking at what our competitor economies are doing and we should be asking ourselves ‘why it is that there is so much obstruction to getting things delivered’” and that “we are burdening ourselves in a way that is stopping anything from happening”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said “we need to completely change the way we talk about how our economy works”.

Asked about what taxes or services she would cut to fill the “black hole” the Labour Government claims was left in the public finances by the Tories, Ms Badenoch told the CBI annual conference in London she is “not talking about which tax we will tweak here or which service we’re going to cut there”.

“We need to completely change the way we talk about how our economy works.

“What is it that we’re trying to so? What should government be doing? How should it do better? Are we having people in the most productive places?”

She said that the change would take “a lot of work” and mean “deep, real reviews asking the right questions”.

“That’s what we’re going to do. If we’re going to rewire the state, we need to start from there and not just adjust little knobs and levers on tax or insurance.”

Kemi Badenoch would not say for certain whether a Conservative government would reverse Labour’s changes to employer national insurance contributions, but suggested they would “look again”.

Taking questions at the CBI annual conference in London on Monday afternoon, Conservative leader Ms Badenoch said that “where we can see that a change that has been brought in in the Budget… will not raise any money, we will change that.”

But, she added: “What I’m not going to do is comment on every bit of micro-policy. There will be different budgets, there will be new things that occur, the system may change.

“What I am starting with is principles, we believe that employer’s National Insurance, while necessary to help us fund public services, is a tax on jobs.”

She added: “The fact that so many organisations – especially those that have people who are on the lowest wages – are saying that this is becoming unaffordable means that we should look again, and that’s one of the first things that we’re going to be doing when we start our policy platform.”

Speaking to business leaders, Kemi Badenoch said: “I was not surprised at how many people attended Labour’s prawn cocktail or smoked salmon offensive last year, I know it is because you thought that we didn’t understand what your needs and concerns were, and you knew we were going to lose.”

Ms Badenoch said that the Conservatives “must be the party of business, not just big business, not just corporates, but small business too” and she is “concerned” about the “burden” on small businesses.

“The new Government believes that invisible businesses can absorb these costs, but it is everyday people who bear the brunt, either in higher prices or lower wages, sometimes both.

“We may see the jobs which are lost as a result, but no one ever sees the jobs that never get created.”

Kemi Badenoch has warned against the government wanting to “fix everything”, saying this is partly how debt has reached record levels, with more being spent on debt regulation than on other sectors such as education or defence.

She stressed: “I believe that we need to rewire our economy, and the vast majority of our jobs are productive and those that are not, change.”

Badenoch has recognised that the last Conservative government had lost the trust of the business sector, and said there was “no point me complaining about Labour” without recognising this fact.

Speaking of Britain’s financial situation and Labour’s approach, she said: “We haven’t done the work which is needed to understand what the root causes of our problems are. They’re not just repeating the mistakes we did but they are doubling down on them.”

Kemi Badenoch has taken to the stage at the CBI annual conference, telling business leaders that they should study politician by “what they did when they had the chance”.

The Conservative leader asked: “How do you know whether a politician is actually going to do what it is they say they’ll do?

“You can only look back on their track record,” she says.

She stressed that when she was business secretary, she “tried to lift the burden off businesses” by fighting with other departments over regulation, saying she saw herself as their “champion around the cabinet table”.

“It is because I know that it is not government that creates growth – it is business. Government often needs to get out of the way,” she argues.

The Cabinet is split over the issue of assisted dying, with more members believed to be in favour than against ahead of the vote on the law change this week.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband have all said they will back the law.

Others, including Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, have been less explicit, but indicated their support for the measures in the Bill.

Meanwhile Ms Mahmood, Mr Streeting, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds have said they will reject the legislation.

Lord Falconer, a former justice secretary and longstanding proponent of a change in the law, criticised the Justice Secretary’s intervention on Sunday.

On Monday, Downing Street declined to be drawn into the row between Lord Falconer and Ms Mahmood, saying it was “up to MPs to determine their position on (the Bill)” and the Prime Minister “respects that there are strongly held views on all sides of the debate”.

Downing Street sought to avoid being drawn into a war of words with Elon Musk after the tech tycoon and Donald Trump ally used his X social media site to highlight a petition calling for another election and branding the UK a “tyrannical police state”.

Asked about Mr Musk’s words, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I’m not going to be drawn on individual comments.”

The spokesman added: “The Prime Minister is focused on the issues that matter most to the British people.

“That’s what the Government was elected to deliver on – protecting our streets is obviously a key part of the Government mission and a key part of the platform the Government was elected on, as well as growing the economy, securing the borders and a number of the other priorities that we have discussed.”

No 10 also insisted it was looking forward to working with US President-elect Trump and his team.

“The Prime Minister looks forward to working with President Trump and his whole team, including Elon Musk, to work on issues, to deepen and develop the special UK-US relationship across trade, investment, security, defence – a wide range of areas the UK and US already share a deep and special relationship on and the Prime Minister looks forward to going further.”