Reparations for slavery? Why Britain has already paid its dues in blood and treasure – Murdo Fraser

It is more than a little disappointing that the conversation in advance of this week’s Commonwealth Conference in Antigua was dominated by calls from Caribbean nations for reparations to be paid by the United Kingdom for the transatlantic slave trade. In response, Andy Burnham indicated that he was open to the possibility of the UK formally apologising for its role in slavery – a departure from the government’s previous stance. Whilst ministers have been clear there’s no question of reparations being paid, there is a real concern that a formal apology will simply give encouragement to Caribbean leaders who believe that payments should be the next step.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch got it right when she said there was no need to add to Tony Blair’s expression of Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade when he was Prime Minister. The UK’s role in the Atlantic slave trade was an abomination, but it needs to be seen in the wider context of history. Every civilisation up to that point engaged in slavery and the slave trade, with all the human misery that flowed as a consequence.

READ MORE: Church of Scotland apologises for historical slave trade links It is wrong to see slavery as something simply practised by Europeans on Africans. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Barbary pirates from North Africa raided communities in western Britain and Ireland to capture slaves to sell in the markets of Tangier and Algiers. The Atlantic slave trade depended upon African kings and chiefs seizing and selling neighbouring peoples and clans, or even sometimes their own subjects.

Britain was amongst the first countries to abolish the slave trade in 1807, thanks to the efforts of William Wilberforce and his campaigning colleagues, driven by their strong Christian principles. From that point on, the Royal Navy acted to disrupt the transatlantic trade in humanity, with great success: 1,600 slave ships captured and 150,000 Africans freed. READ MORE: Why Scotland's real-life 'Master and Commander', Thomas Cochrane, deserves a statue in Edinburgh And all this came at great cost, with an estimated 2 per cent of British GDP expended on the West Africa Squadron, whilst records indicate that 17,000 sailors lost their lives in this moral endeavour.

Whilst 19th century Britain was devoting resources, and lives, to end the horrors of slavery, the Arab slave trade in East and Central Africa continued for as much as a century more. It was an ambition to open up Africa to commerce in order to defeat that trade, as much as a commitment to spread Christianity, that drove Scottish missionaries and explorers like David Livingston to the continent at great personal cost. READ MORE: 300 years after Tumbling Lassie case we still have slavery in Scotland Given our history, the notion that we should be paying reparations for the slave trade, when we were the ones expending huge resources to bring it to an end, is frankly absurd.

It would be as ridiculous as us today expecting the governments of Algeria or Morocco to pay compensation for taking English villagers as slaves four centuries ago. If there is logic in Britain being asked to make an apology for the transatlantic slave trade, should the same questions not be put to the descendants of African rulers who made profit from it throughout the 19th century and before? But that would invoke the principle that people today have a responsibility for the actions of their ancestors, a suggestion which presents all sorts of difficulties for countries everywhere.

As Kemi Badenoch reminded us at the weekend, back at the start of this century campaign groups like Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History called for the cancellation of the debts of the poorest countries, arguing that this would give them a fresh start. As a consequence of this, more than $100 billion of debt was written off, but many of those countries have since built up even larger debts. We should be resisting calls to pay more money to those who cannot put their own financial houses in order, when there is so much in our own country that needs to be addressed.

READ MORE: Why modern slavery is about to move higher up the agenda But perhaps the worst aspect of this discussion is that it diverts attention from what is the real evil that faces us today, and that is the scourge of modern slavery. It is estimated that an astonishing 50 million people worldwide live in modern slavery, which includes 27.6 million in forced labour, and 22 million in forced marriages. The campaign group Anti-Slavery International defines modern slavery as when an individual is exploited by others, for personal or commercial gain.

Whether these individuals are tricked, coerced or forced, they lose their freedom. It can involve individuals being human trafficked, being subject to forced or bonded labour, being forced into marriage, and can include the exploitation of children who can be trafficked, made to marry an adult, or recruited as soldiers. Even in our own country, it is reckoned that around 130,000 people are living in situations of extreme exploitation, or what can appropriately be classed as slavery.

Today we have vulnerable individuals being trafficked into the country who might be forced into drug trafficking or cannabis production, or be subject to sexual exploitation. One might think that the scale of this problem would horrify Commonwealth leaders, who would want to see a focus on stamping out modern slavery. Instead, it seems that they would rather navel gaze with calls for apologies for the events of centuries ago, trying to pursue claims for reparations which they must know will never be paid.

It is time to put to bed for good the notion that our country has a financial responsibility today for the slave trade. Instead our focus must be those suffering from slavery today, wherever in the world they might be. Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife