HOT: Barbados wants £2tn in reparations and hints UK is ready to cave to demands

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Barbados wants £2tn in reparations and hints UK is ready to cave to demands.

Speaking at the London School of Economics’ International Inequalities Institute, she repeatedly praised King Charles’s apparent willingness to confront slavery.

Mottley also noted that conversations over how this debt should be repaid would “be difficult and will take time.”

“These numbers, if taken out of context, can appear to be staggering. But in relation to the total wealth accumulated over a period of time, the numbers are actually minuscule,” said Mottley.

Addressing the historical legacy of slavery would allow the global community to “move on in strength rather than languishing in the shadows of a disgraceful history”, she said.

Mottley said the call for reparations had gained urgency in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“For the first time the world recognised that we could no longer ignore the trauma of four centuries of enslavement and barbarism and of denying people their humanity,” she added. “I want to salute the king for having the courage to understand that this is a conversation whose time has come.”

The king spoke of his “personal sorrow at the suffering of so many”, and how he continues to “deepen [his] understanding of slavery’s enduring impact”. He added: “To forge a common future, that benefits all our citizens, we too must find new ways to acknowledge our past … This is a conversation whose time has come.” The speech made no reference to financial reparations.

Since becoming prime minister in 2018, Mottley has become a powerful voice globally on the legacy of colonialism and has helped transform the call for reparations into a mainstream political issue.

Citing calculations made in a report by the Brattle Group, which factors in the wealth and GDP amassed by countries that enslaved African people, she set out that the UK owes $24tn in reparations to 14 countries affected by transatlantic slavery, Spain owes $17.1tn, France owes $9.2tn and the Netherlands owes $4.86tn.

Mottley also met with Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Tuesday. However, she did not give details of the foreign secretary’s thoughts on the UK’s slavery-related debt.

She said: “I’m not going to get into the details of our conversation but suffice to say I think the foreign secretary will take his lead from His Majesty.”

Mottley has been a prominent campaigner on the awareness of colonialism and its legacy since coming to power in 2018. She has been credited as a key voice for turning the call for reparations into a mainstream political issue.