“These comments are deeply offensive and an obnoxious distortion of history.”
Robert Jenrick continues to show just how far-right he is during the Tory leadership contest, this time claiming that ‘former British colonies owe us a debt of gratitude’, comments which have resulted in condemnation.
Jenrick made the remarks in a column for the Daily Mail, in which he claimed that British colonies should be grateful for the legacy of empire.
He wrote: “Many of our former colonies — amid the complex realities of empire — owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them.”
Jenrick made his disgraceful comments after Commonwealth leaders agreed at the weekend that the “time has come” for a conversation about reparations for the slave trade.
The Tory leadership hopeful was condemned by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Afrikan reparations. She told the Independent that Jenrick’s remarks were deeply offensive.
She said: “These comments are deeply offensive and an obnoxious distortion of history.
“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.”
Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, lawyer and activist posted on X: “The ingratitude of this political illiterate @RobertJenrick. Britain would be nothing without colonised African & Asian nations. It’s Industrial Revolution & Capitalist Wealth were built on the blood, sweat, forced labour & lives of our forebears.
“The ‘inheritance’ it left were the resources it stole, lands it pillaged, genocides committed, division of nations, systemic rape & collective punishment committed in the name of its racist British empire – a genocidal & thieving empire that still profits off former colonies to date.”
Historian William Dalrymple described Jenrick as a ‘Tory moron’ in reaction to his comments.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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