12 hours ago
MPs to discuss slavery reparations
MPs are set to discuss slavery reparations with a delegation from the Caribbean.
A group of activists and academics will travel to Westminster to make their case, which could include demands for Britain to pay trillions of pounds.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, and David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, have been invited, the Telegraph has been informed.
Insiders said there had been plans for Mr Lammy to host a 'Caricom forum' which would hear submissions about reparations. However, sources said this was pushed back.
Caricom refers to the Caribbean Community, a supranational body representing nations in the region.
It is understood the events are intended to make the case for reparative justice.
There had been hopes among campaigners that Mr Lammy, of Guyanese descent, and Labour generally might be sympathetic to their cause.
The Tories refused repeatedly to countenance discussing it.
Pressure was brought to bear on Sir Keir at the 2024 Commonwealth summit in Samoa where the issue was forced onto the official agenda but No 10 publicly ruled out payments.
Mr Lammy, who was there, had suggested that reparations need not be a 'cash transfer' but could include 'other forms of non-financial reparatory justice too'.
The UK signed off on the Commonwealth summit statement which set out the need for 'inclusive conversations' about reparations for slavery, and the need to address 'chattel enslavement… dispossession of indigenous people, indentureship, colonialism' in order to move to a 'future based on equity'.
The delegation will be hosted in Parliament on July 2 by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who heads the all-party parliament group on Afrikan reparations and is a staunch supporter of the cause.
Events have been organised and supported by the Repair Campaign, a group which supports Caribbean efforts to secure reparations.
The group was founded by Denis O'Brien, the Irish billionaire owner of telecoms giant Digicel. He has overseen the creation of development packages tailored to the needs of Caribbean nations and funded by former colonial powers.
Voters of Caribbean descent
Baroness Chapman, Minister of State for Development, has also been invited to meet the Caribbean delegation, along with members of the foreign affairs committee. It is understood that invitations have been extended to MPs representing constituencies with a high proportion of voters of Caribbean descent.
Events will be held at Portcullis House on the parliamentary estate.
Before coming to London, the delegation will travel to Brussels to argue that former slave-trading powers including France and the Netherlands should support paying compensation for the exploitation of enslaved Africans.
It includes members of the Reparations Commission for Caricom.
The commission has spent more than a decade pushing for Britain to agree to a 10-point plan for reparations, which has been repeatedly rebuffed.
Uriel Sabajo will represent the Suriname committee, and Carla Astaphan will be in London to represent St Kitts & Nevis, a former British colony.
While they are connected to Caricom, the delegation is not an official group sent by the commission itself.
Other delegates expected in London include leading professors from the University of the West Indies, along with Mr O'Brien and his colleagues.
British supporters of the movement, including Dr Michael Banner, author and Dean and Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, will also attend.
