A new report has urged Commonwealth leaders to tackle modern slavery rather than demand trillions in reparations.
The Atonement Complex, shared exclusively with GB News, argues that greater attention should be paid to the estimated 50 million people living in modern slavery worldwide.
It comes as Andy Burnham is set to attend a Commonwealth leaders’ summit in the Caribbean this week, after the Prime Minister signalled he was open to calls for a formal British apology for its role in the slave trade.
However, a new report by Professor Doug Stokes for the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) challenges the claim that slavery underpinned Britain’s prosperity.
The report argues that the “politics of reparations rests on its economics before it fails on its history”.
It argues the £18.8trillion, estimate of Britain’s potential reparations liability, produced by the Brattle Group in 2023, rests on “highly sensitive economic assumptions” that could change the figure by trillions.
Professor Stokes said: “There are an estimated 50 million people living in modern slavery today. Commonwealth leaders should be focusing on ending that suffering, not pursuing trillion-pound compensation claims for events centuries ago.
“Slavery was a profound injustice, but claims that it made Britain rich overlook the enormous economic and human costs Britain bore in abolishing the trade. We need an honest account of the whole history, not selective arguments for reparations.”
The report also challenges the claim that slavery was the foundation of Britain’s prosperity.
Professor Stokes argues that, while slavery generated substantial wealth for some merchants and plantation owners, its contribution to Britain’s wider economic development was more limited than often suggested.
Instead, the paper suggests Britain’s campaign to suppress the international slave trade cost approximately 1.8 per cent of national income annually over 60 years, including lost trade, higher consumer prices and government expenditure.
Around 5,000 British lives were also lost in the suppression effort, according to the report.
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Going further, Professor Stokes argues that the reparations debate “too often overlooks” both Britain’s role in abolition and the wider global history of slavery, including the involvement of African kingdoms and non-Western empires.
The paper also warns that reparations demands could expose Britain to significant financial and geopolitical pressure.
Lastly, it draws parallels with the Chagos Islands dispute, noting how a non-binding international court opinion “helped generate political pressure for Britain to negotiate sovereignty and make substantial financial commitments.”
Professor Stokes warns that reparations campaigners could pursue a similar approach.
Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs Lord Hannan said: “Reparations would be wrong on every level.
“They are aimed narrowly at the country that, in a slave-owning world, distinguished itself by a decades-long struggle to end the foul business.
They are based on a collectivism that is impossible to reconcile with freedom. They rest on poor history.
“They divert the energies of Caribbean politicians from domestic economic reforms to international rent-seeking.”
The topic has loomed large over the King’s ongoing visit to the Caribbean, where he said it was “only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering and injustices of the past.”
As head of state, King Charles is above party politics and is not expected to apologise or refer to the change in Government policy when he opens a summit tomorrow.
Mr Burnham expressed his £sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions”, but, as previous governments have, rejected calls for financial compensation.
He wrote in The Guardian: “We are offering a structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade.
“Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process and I am open to them.”
Ruling out considering reparations, Mr Burnham wrote: “I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part.”
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