Why campaigners say Britain owes £18 trillion for slavery reparations | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Keir Starmer may face calls for handy over £18 trillion ($24tn) in slavery reparations this week, as he faces a livid Commonwealth showdown in Samoa.

The Prime Minister insists he’s focussed on present and future points quite than the previous, however senior leaders within the Caribbean and different international locations seem intent on pushing the difficulty at this yr’s CHOGM summit.

With the row now raging, a 2023 report into precisely how a lot the UK could possibly be anticipated to pay out has resurfaced, backed by a senior UN choose.

The report, printed final yr by the University of West Indies and backed by choose Patrick Robinson on the International Court of Justice, places the determine on the thoughts boggling determine.

The paper, nicknamed the Brattle Group Report, introduced collectively economists, attorneys and historians, and was hailed by left-wingers on the time as one of the vital complete makes an attempt to place a determine on the harms attributable to slavery.

It didn’t simply deal with Britain, however advised that reparations from 31 former slaveholding international locations ought to quantity to a daft £82tn ($107.8tn).

It additionally broke down the place Britain’s contribution – the second highest demanded after the United States – ought to be despatched.

According the authors, £7.3tn ($9.559tn) alone ought to be handed over to Jamaica, with Barbados coming in second at £3.7tn ($4.906tn), and the United States themselves at £2.8tn ($3.344tn).

The sum, which incorporates an rate of interest of two.5%, was comprised of a lot of components.

They included:

• The variety of enslaved individuals who launched into every vacation spot journey or have been born into slavery
• Loss of life and uncompensated labour
• Loss of liberty
• Personal damage
• Mental ache and anguish
• Gender based mostly violence

The paper extra generously advised that the UK might solely owe $17.141 trillion based mostly on 2.3% rate of interest, which in flip is an estimation of the two.282% common development fee in wages from the enslaved interval to the current.

Following the report’s publication, then-PM Rishi Sunak dismissed requires the UK authorities to apologise and pay reparations.

However Mr Robinson mentioned he hoped the Government would take his Brattle Report critically and known as on him to alter his thoughts.

He mentioned: “For me, it goes beyond what the government and the political parties want.”

“Of course they should set the tone. But I would like to see the people of the United Kingdom involved in this exercise as a whole.”

Asked if the £18 trillion figure could be too high, he argued: “You need to bear in mind that these high figures, as high as they appear to be, reflect an underestimation of the reality of the damage caused by transatlantic chattel slavery. That’s a comment that cannot be ignored.”