King Charles III is set to face demands to pay $260 billion compensation for Britain's role the transatlantic slave trade. The British monarch will attend the Commonwealth Heads Government summit later this week. The annual meeting brings together leaders 56 member states that were once territories or colonies the former British Empire. Fifteen Caribbean nations have unanimously agreed to raise the issue slave trade reparations the summit. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the U.K. needed to atone its past atrocities. U.N. judge Patrick Robinson puts the realistic amount reparations for damage done Britain during the slave trade at $25 trillion.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has spoken how his ancestors heard "twisted lies imperialism as they were…turned slaves". His ancestors were enslaved. In 2018, he tweeted: "As Caribbean people, we are not going to forget our history. We don't just want to hear an apology. We want reparations." Conversely, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a possible future chairman the U.K. Conservative Party, suggested Commonwealth countries should pay the U.K. its role abolishing slavery. He tweeted: "They ought to pay us ending slavery. It is not something any other country had done, and we were motivated Christian charity." The U.K. recently stated there would be no financial redress.
