British MP faces reparations for his family’s slave past

The government is considering plans to make a wealthy British Conservative MP the first individual to pay reparations for his ancestor’s role in slavery.

Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, travelled to the Caribbean island for a meeting with the prime minister, Mia Mottley. A report is now before cabinet laying out the next steps. The Drax family pioneered the plantation system in the 17th century and played a major role in the development of sugar and slavery across the Caribbean and the US.

Barbados became a republic a year ago, after it removed Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

Barbados MP Trevor Prescod, chairman of Barbados National Task Force on Reparations, part of the Caricom Reparations Commission, said the UN had declared slavery to be a crime against humanity: “If the issue cannot be resolved we would take legal action in the international courts. The case against the Drax family would be for hundreds of years of slavery, so it’s likely any damages would go well beyond the value of the land.”