A Cambridge academic has said that the UK owes £205billion in slavery reparations to the Caribbean.
Rev Dr Michael Banner claims that Britain was once “the leading slaving nation in the world' and modern day descendants of slaves are entitled to compensation.
In his new book, Britain’s Slavery Debt, the Dean of Trinity College Cambridge has calculated that the UK owes descendants of slavery a combined total of over £200billion.
He established this hefty figure from claims made by slave owners when the trade was eradicated in 1833.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, 2.3 million slaves were transported from Africa and the Caribbean to the West - each with a value of around £60 at the time, according to Dr Banner’s research.
Whilst the UK Government has repeatedly rejected any reparation claims - with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in April last year refusing to apologise for the UK’s role in the trade - Dr Banner is instead channelling his efforts on Scotland.
He is calling on the Scottish Government to “show leadership” amid the situation and begin repaying its £20.5billion share - one-tenth of what Britain owes as a whole.
Dr Banner, who has also held senior positions at Edinburgh University and King’s College London, said that Scotland should take the reins and show that they are more liberal than the rest of the UK.
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He told The Herald: “It’s well-known Scots played an outsized part in growing and sustaining the British empire, and Glasgow was in particular closely tied up with Caribbean trade.
“Scotland now has an opportunity to show leadership once again on the side of right, by recognising the compelling case for making reparations to the nations and people of the Caribbean.”
He added: “The British Government has consistently failed to face up to this responsibility. Scotland can show the way.”
Scottish Tory MSP Stephen Kerr said Dr Banner's case “may have its place in the ivory towers of Russell Group universities” but did not “speak to the real-world challenges we are facing”.
He added: “People in Scotland have other pressing concerns. We need to deal with the real priorities of Scots and not be concerned with yet more academic virtue-signalling.”
Last year, Patrick Robinson, a leading judge at the International Court of Justice said that the UK likely owes more than £18trillion in repatriations due to its role in the slave trade.
Urging Britain to change its current stance on the issue, he said: “They cannot continue to ignore the greatest atrocity, signifying man’s inhumanity to man. They cannot continue to ignore it.
“Reparations have been paid for other wrongs and obviously far more quickly, far more speedily than reparations for what I consider the greatest atrocity and crime in the history of mankind: transatlantic chattel slavery.”
His comments came after an academic report alleged that 31 former slaveholding states owed between $100trillion - $131trillion amongst them.
Whilst the UK nor Scottish Governments have issued a formal apology, institutions such as Glasgow University, the Church of England, and NHS Lothian have previously.
