Britain’s ex-colonies should be more grateful, says Tory leader hopeful

LONDON — Britain’s former colonies should be thanking their old imperial masters rather than pressing for slavery reparations, the man hoping to lead Britain’s Conservative Party declared.

Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said many Commonwealth nations owe Britain a “debt of gratitude” for the democratic institutions they inherited after the U.K. handed over control.

Jenrick, who faces off against Kemi Badenoch for the Tory crown this weekend, acknowledged the British Empire was “complex” and “committed crimes on a terrible scale, including slavery, the displacement of peoples, and military aggression.”

But, writing in the Daily Mail, he said the U.K. should be “proud of its achievements” instead of feeling “crippling shame.”

“Former colonies recognized that the British system of governance was the best in the world for promoting peace and prosperity,” he said.

Jenrick’s comments come after 55 Commonwealth nations — the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire — agreed that “the time has come” for a conversation about reparatory justice for the Transatlantic slave trade. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has rejected the idea of reparations payments, prompting criticism from some members of his own party.

Wading into that row, Jenrick wrote Tuesday: “Many of our former colonies — amid the complex realities of Empire — owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them.”

Jenrick’s comments may land well with a Conservative Party membership more right-wing than the general public.