Britain’s former colonies should be thankful for the legacy of empire, not demanding reparations, according to the Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick.

In comments that were described by a Labour MP as “deeply offensive”, the former minister said countries that were part of the empire “owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them” in the form of legal and democratic institutions.

Jenrick made the comments in an article in the Daily Mail, pushing back against the growing momentum to provide reparations and justice to countries and people affected by transatlantic slavery.

Commonwealth leaders agreed at the weekend that the “time has come” for a conversation about reparations for the slave trade.

Keir Starmer was among 56 heads of government who signed a document at the Commonwealth summit that acknowledged calls for “discussions on reparatory justice” for the “abhorrent” transatlantic slave trade.

Starmer was criticised before the conference after he told reporters he wanted to “look forward” rather than have “very long endless discussions about reparations on the past”.

Jenrick accused Starmer of doing a U-turn on the issue and of “capitulating to those determined to tear our country down”.

The MP, who is regarded as trailing his rival, Kemi Badenoch, in a run-off for the votes of Conservative members before the announcement of a final result on Saturday, claimed that the debate about reparations had “seeped into our national debate through universities overrun by leftists peddling pseudo-Marxist gibberish to impressionable undergraduates”.

He said: “The territories colonised by our empire were not advanced democracies. Many had been cruel, slave-trading powers. Some had never been independent. The British empire broke the long chain of violent tyranny as we came to introduce – gradually and imperfectly – Christian values.”

Alongside “honesty about the crimes of colonialism”, Jenrick said, Britain should be proud of its “achievements”, instancing the model of common law and other British institutions in former colonies.

He wrote: “I’m not ashamed of our history. It may not feel like it, but many of our former colonies – amid the complex realities of empire – owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them.”

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations, which has organised Britain’s second national conference on reparations, taking place on Sunday, described Jenrick’s comments as “deeply offensive and an obnoxious distortion of history”.

She said: “Enslavement and colonialism were not ‘gifts’ but imposed systems that brutally exploited people, extracted wealth, and dismantled societies, all for the benefit of Britain. To suggest that former colonies should be ‘grateful’ for such unimaginable harm disregards the legacy of these injustices and the long-term impact they still have on many nations today.

“Following Brexit we need to establish ourselves as a nation that everyone can do business with. We cannot afford such vile, baseless commentary. Whilst it might send perfectly pitched dog whistles for a Tory leadership contest, these insulting sentiments are catastrophic for international relations.”

Days before the deadline for Conservative members to cast their votes on who should succeed Rishi Sunak as leader, Badenoch has also spoken out against reparations, claiming that British politicians are “too embarrassed” to be visibly against the idea.

“I would not put my name to any document that mentioned reparations,” she told the Telegraph.

Golan007:


To an extent how?
You thank people for enslaving you?

AfonjaConehead:
The medieval koneheaded structures celebrating toilets should indeed go and dobale, prostrate flat on the ground and appreciate the British people for saving them from the bush....

10mobile:
Yes, to an extent. But what do they owe us for destroying our traditional institutions and heritage?

gistray:
They owe every country the colonized an apology.

They destroyed Nigeria and gave us a ticking time bomb

Look at those Northerners and look at the south and tell me how we are identical or will ever be the same

North and south way of life totally different and doesn't align


Imagine a United south without the Backwards North

We'd be at worst like South Africa 🇿🇦 Or Ukraine

QuinQ:
His statement is somewhat true



They never forced Nigeria to stay together. Infact they were plotting that north refuse to join. Nigerians didn't even include a secession clause - infact Zik was ready to die that it NOT be included. How is that their fault? They gave us a giant that could have been great.
That we totally messed it up is NOT their fault!

motymop:
To be realistic, his statement is true.

10mobile:
Yes, to an extent. But what do they owe us for destroying our traditional institutions and heritage?

member13:
We are all here using their language, mostly clad in their attire, and will do everything in our power to relocate to their land. Would you blame them for having such racist views? I have never seen a white person with an African name before but our institutions, laws, and religion are all foreign, so I can see why this neantherthal would hold such views.

Metrofox:


They didn't give any giant! Go read your history books, Nigeria was and is still a business empire the way it was structured for admin purposes. Same was done in India and they eventually broke into two violently and still wanting to break up now. People have to come together voluntarily on their own terms towards any meaningful purpose

RodgersAkpafu:


How can it be true ?

RodgersAkpafu:


How can it be true ?

motymop:
To be realistic, his statement is true.

The British brought western education, hospitals and clinics, roads, new way of farming, improved farming tools and seeds etc, obviously they also brought their religion and churches.

I have watched lot of videos, to be sincere we should be thanking them.

Many of us will still be living in hut, sold as slaves, naked without electricity and no ambition

motymop:
To be realistic, his statement is true.

The British brought western education, hospitals and clinics, roads, new way of farming, improved farming tools and seeds etc, obviously they also brought their religion and churches.

I have watched lot of videos, to be sincere we should be thanking them.

Many of us will still be living in hut, sold as slaves, naked without electricity and no ambition

Dogalmighty17:


See broda! Broda wey mumu. Broda wey no wise.

gistray:
They owe every country the colonized an apology.

They destroyed Nigeria and gave us a ticking time bomb

Look at those Northerners and look at the south and tell me how we are identical or will ever be the same

North and south way of life totally different and doesn't align


Imagine a United south without the Backwards North

We'd be at worst like South Africa 🇿🇦 Or Ukraine

motymop:


The language you are typing with

Who brought it?

The primary school and the university you went to, who brought the idea

The cloth you are wearing, obviously western, who brought it

The concept of living in a house and not a hit, who brought the concept

Thanks to colonization

RodgersAkpafu:


This is very crazy to read
Africans are truly mentally defeated people
Shame