UK must consider slavery reparations as it is ‘right thing to do’ – Labour MP

Dawn Butler said she understood why Sir Keir Starmer is pushing to focus on the future but the ‘wrong people’ had previously been paid reparations.

Labour former minister Dawn Butler spoke out about slavery (Jane Barlow/PA) (PA Archive)

The UK should consider reparations for those who were enslaved because it is “the right thing to do”, a Labour former minister has argued, as MPs urged the Government to open up the conversation.

Dawn Butler said she understood why Sir Keir Starmer is pushing to focus on the future but the “wrong people” had previously been paid reparations, with 46,000 individuals receiving Government compensation payouts following the abolition of slavery.

During a black history month debate, fellow Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy claimed that people have been “scared” by the large sums of money being proposed but other forms of reparation, such as environmental or educational, should also be looked at.

So there has been a precedent in paying reparations for slavery, it's just been paid to the wrong people

Dawn Butler

Brent East MP Ms Butler said: “Six years ago in 2018 I received a message – so did everybody else in the country – and this message said to inform me that we had finished paying reparations owed, and the message said the amount of money borrowed for the Slavery Abolition Act was so large that it wasn’t paid off until 2015, which means that living British citizens helped pay to end the slave trade.

“I was absolutely shocked when I received that message and I thought, I don’t consent to my taxpayers’ money paying slave owners compensation.”

“So there has been a precedent in paying reparations for slavery, it’s just been paid to the wrong people,” she added.

The British government paid £20 million to slave owners in compensation when slavery was abolished across most of the empire in 1833, which amounted to 40% of the Treasury’s annual income.

Intervening, Labour MP Marsha de Cordova (Battersea) said: “Whilst we absolutely look to the future, it’s so important that we do open and have that discussion about reparations because, like her or myself, we are descendants of those that were enslaved.”

Ms Butler, who was the first black woman to stand at the despatch box as a government minister, said: “I understand that the Prime Minister has said that we have to look to the future, and he’s dealing with 14 years of corruption and mismanagement by Conservative government, but we do have to consider reparations because it’s the right thing to do.

“It makes you wonder, would it ever be conceivable that this decision would be made today – would we pay traffickers for the loss of trade? Would we pay pimps for the loss of trade? I mean it’s a ridiculous assertion.

“So I thought to myself, what, who made this decision and how was it made? But obviously it was made in Parliament, back then there were no women, there were no black people, there were no people of colour. It was just white men and they made that decision.

“And to think that it was just nine years ago, so it’s still very current.”

Intervening, MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill Ms Ribeiro-Addy said: “There are a number of different people who are calling for reparations, including people in this House, there is an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Afrikan Reparations of which she is a member.

“And does she agree with me that there should be a discussion about the different ways in which people want to see reparations paid.

“People have heard the large sums of money and they’ve got quite scared but they haven’t heard about all of the different ways in which we could go about repairing the sheer imbalance of equality that we created as a country by taking part in the enslavement and trafficking and colonialisation of countries.

“Like environmental reparations, educational reparations, all of these different ways in which we could support those that we so seriously disadvantaged.”

Ms Butler continued: “Some things will be easy to compensate. It’s not just about money.

“We could give back artefacts, we can give back the bodies of freedom fighters, stolen jewels and precious metals wherever they may be, make good the land and seas ruined by oil spills, correct the education of history, compensate land for homeowners, cancel the debt.

“You know, there’s lots of things that can be done to make sure we have reparations.

“And I would say that yes, it is complex to calculate what is owed but let’s not forget that in order for slavery to continue, people put a number on people’s lives. People were sold for money. So, if it could be done then it can be done now.”

Sir Keir has insisted calls for reparations for slavery were not on his agenda, as he travelled to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The Prime Minister said there is “no question” that slavery was “abhorrent”, adding: “But I think from my point of view and taking the approach I’ve just taken, I’d rather roll up my sleeves and work with them on the current future-facing challenges than spend a lot of time on the past. That’s my focus.”