Robert Jenrick has outlined a “better and more British thing to do” than pay billions in slavery reparations.
The matter has recently come into focus with Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley reiterating calls for Britain to shell out for its past atrocities.
Speaking on GB News’s Decision Time: The Race to Lead, the Tory leadership hopeful delivered a firm response when asked whether Britain should pay up.
“Absolutely not”, he said.
Jenrick is grilled by Christopher Hope
GB NEWS
“We abolished slavery 200 years ago. British sailors died on the high seas defending that principle and trying to enforce other countries to do the same.
“I would like to back Penny Mordaunt’s idea to have a memorial to those brave sailors who helped install the emancipation of slaves elsewhere.
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“That would be a better and more British thing to do than a pointless waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Number 10 remains steadfast in its insistence that reparations will not be paid, but the calls look likely to ramp up.
Jenrick shut down calls for reparations
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Keir Starmer has ruled out paying reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade in the run-up to a major Commonwealth summit.
Downing Street insisted the issue was “not on the agenda” for the meeting of nations in Samoa later this month.
Asked what the Prime Minister’s view on paying reparations is, his official spokesman said on Monday: “We do not pay reparations.”
All three candidates vying to become the next secretary-general of the 56-nation Commonwealth headed by the King have supported reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonialism.
Robert Jenrick addressed Tory members
GB NEWS
Resurfaced footage of David Lammy, now foreign secretary, showed him supporting the case for measures to compensate for Britain’s role in the slave trade.
Speaking as a backbench MP in 2018, he said: “I’m afraid as Caribbean people we’re not going to forget our history.
“We don’t just want to hear an apology, we want reparation.”
Members of the British Royal Family, UK governments and aristocratic families were involved in the trafficking and sale of millions of African people.
The leadership vote between Shirley Botchwey of Ghana, Joshua Setipa of Lesotho and Mamadou Tangara of Gambia will take place at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) from October 21.
Number 10’s resistance to reparations is in line with the position of the former Tory government, which repeatedly rejected calls for payouts.
