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Peros Banhos on the Chagos archipelago looks like your basic tropical island paradise: turquoise waters and golden sands, waves lapping on a palm-fringed beach. But step off the strip of sand into the wall of green behind, and you’re enveloped by mosquitoes. The old well you were counting on for water is a shallow puddle. And the silver fish between your feet dart past a net, despite not having seen one in 50 years.

The jungle has grown over the old British colonial buildings, and the jungle is a harsh place. Four Chagos Islanders have been here more than a week, along with the man who brought them, Adam Holloway – former MP, ex-Guards officer, an adventurer seemingly from an earlier era. This is not, as the Foreign Office briefed journalists, ‘a political stunt’. It is not merely a protest against the plan for Britain to hand the territory to Mauritius. The Chagossians are coming home.

It was early January when Adam told me about his plan to accomplish this. I was surprised, but not shocked. We became friends 20 years ago, when I was reporting from Afghanistan and he asked for help getting to Helmand to see the war for himself. The Tory whips’ office was horrified. He went anyway, showing the relaxed attitude to authority that stopped him climbing the greasy pole to high office, but which has carried him into the Chagos exclusion zone.

Misley declares that he will die before leaving Chagos. He would have to be dragged away in handcuffs

Misley declares that he will die before leaving Chagos. He would have to be dragged away in handcuffs

I agreed to help and travelled with him. The whole thing was done in complete secrecy,........

© The Spectator