But the icing on the cake is that Labour has now announced a bold plan for tackling the issue: paying the remote Overseas Territory of St Helena millions of pounds to house anyone who arrives on the island until the handover is finalised.

The Helenians are understandably unamused — and not merely because of the downgrade, given that the last person we exiled there was Napoleon. St Helena’s population is just 4,500, so even a few hundred refugees is going to have a huge impact. No wonder the Government apparently failed to consult them.

On one level, that last point is another lesson in power from Labour. How often did Conservative proposals to use Ascension Island for offshore processing founder on local opposition? But if the Government pressured the Helenian authorities to accept the deal, it will also be yet another worrying signal to our remaining overseas territories.

However, the real question is this: if processing asylum seekers in St Helena is actually helpful (as in, stops them getting into Britain), why not simply roll out such a programme rather than surrender the British Indian Ocean Territory at all? After all, the £6 million Labour is paying for the processing deal is almost certain to be a mere fraction of whatever sum Britain ends up paying Mauritius for the privilege of leasing back its own base.

Finally, it’s worth noting the irony of this government, headed by a proud human rights lawyer, trying to wriggle out of an asylum obligation like this. One of the reasons the native Chagossians vehemently oppose giving their homeland to Mauritius is its shabby treatment of minorities like theirs; it seems unlikely Port Louis will be nearly as fastidious as the UK about returning Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka.

If the end result is that they will in future be sent back, we might have bitten the bullet and done so ourselves. Instead, the Government seems to have embarked on an expensive farce — ignoring the rights and views of the displaced natives in the process — in order to keep its hands clean.

Chagos might seem like a niche cause. But the Conservatives should take it up with gusto. Labour’s deal is pointless, expensive, and undermines Britain’s position on the world stage. What’s more, it brutally exposes the hypocrisy of the Government’s bluster about human rights.

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Henry Hill is Deputy Editor of ConservativeHome.

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