Barbados reparations demand called 'ironic' due to China links

Calls from Barbados for the UK to pay billions in compensation for its role in the slave trade were branded ‘utterly ironic’ last night over the country’s links to China.

A group of Caribbean governments has agreed to put slavery reparations on the table at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa next week.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley is leading demands from West Indies nations and she met King Charles earlier this month ahead of the 56-nation gathering. She has said reparations for slavery and colonialism should be part of a new ‘global reset’.

Also Read: US fines Lufthansa $4m over alleged discrimination against Orthodox Jewish passengers

But last night, Ms. Mottley was criticized over her country’s links to China, where the UN has reported the forced labor of members of minority groups.

Tory grandee and China hawk Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Mail: “It is utterly ironic that countries that bend the knee to China and take the ‘belt and road’ money turn a blind eye to the fact that China is now probably the biggest user of slavery in its production lines and its products.”

He added: “So how ironic that people should call on us to pay them, when they are busy cosying up on their knees to China in the hope of more money from an appalling, abusive nation that has one of the worst records in history in abuse and political execution.”

Ms. Mottley has stated that Barbados is owed $4.9 trillion (£3.9 trillion) by former slave-owning nations, while Sir Iain dismissed calls for reparations, asserting that the UK “spent billions in ending the slave trade.”

He concluded, “We have paid well over the asking price for anything to do with what happened because we were the ones who paid through the nose to stop it.”