UK ‘owes Caribbean nations £205b in slavery reparations’ says academic

By Katherine Lawton Published: 14:07 EDT, 19 May 2024 | Updated: 14:16 EDT, 19 May 2024 The UK owes Caribbean nations £205billion in slavery reparations, a leading Cambridge academic has said.  This country was once ‘the leading slaving nation in the world’ and present day descendants of slaves deserve compensation, the Dean of Trinity College Cambridge Dr Michael Banner claimed.   In a new book, titled Britain’s Slavery Debt, the theologian said he calculated that Britain owes £205billion, The Telegraph reported.  He based the figure on the compensation claims made by slave owners when the trade was first abolished in 1833.  Despite the UK government rejecting the case for reparations, Dr Banner has urged the Scottish Government to ‘show leadership’ on the issue and start paying back its share of £20.5billion.  It comes after Tory MPs rebuffered calls from Caribbean nations for Britain to pay reparations over treatment of ‘indentured workers’. Speaking to the Herald on Sunday, Mr Banner claimed that Scotland should seize the initiative due to presenting itself as more liberal than the remainder of the UK.  ‘It’s well-known Scots played an outsized part in growing and sustaining the British empire, and Glasgow was in particular closely tied up...