The ex-PM has launched a blistering broadside against plans to pay slavery reparations.
The ex-PM has launched a blistering broadside against plans to pay slavery reparations (Image: Getty)
Boris Johnson has launched a blistering broadside against plans to pay slavery reparations, revealing his own great-great-grandmother was sold as a child. The former Tory premier tore into Prime Minister Andy Burnham for opening the door to official apologies and compensation, branding the push a “fiasco” and pure “madness”. In an extraordinary disclosure, Mr Johnson revealed family ancestry research confirmed he is the direct descendant of a slave girl bought at a 19th-century Istanbul market. He said his ancestor, Hanife Feride, was a Circassian refugee fleeing Russian imperial aggression in the Caucasus who was shipped across the Black Sea and put up for auction in the Grand Bazaar. She was later purchased by a Turkish woman and married to a 43-year-old businessman at just 13.
“Her name was Hanife Feride and she is my great-great-grandmother. Yes, folks, it’s true… it seems undeniable: that we Johnsons are descended from slavery,” he wrote.
Seizing on the discovery, the ex-Prime Minister turned Daily Mail columnist used this week’s column to ridicule calls for British taxpayers to fund historic atonement packages, asking if anyone seriously believed his own family deserved a payout. “Let me ask you: does anyone out there seriously think that the large, sprawling, and broadly affluent Johnson family deserve any kind of taxpayer-funded compensation?” he asked.
“Would you like to see me get some sudden wodge of cash, in compensation for the undoubted injustice suffered by my great-great-grandmother? Of course you wouldn’t.”
Targeting the current occupant of No 10, Mr Johnson branded Mr Burnham a “muppet” after he pledged to launch a year-long “structured dialogue” on making amends and offered £40million in assistance to Caribbean nations. He warned the move would expose hard-working Britons to a financial black hole that could cost “literally hundreds of billions of pounds.”
Taking aim at both the Government and the Church of England – which established a £100million fund over historic links to slavery – he argued the UK taxpayer was being dragged into a “fatuous shakedown campaign.”
Andy Burnham and the King have been asked for a transatlantic slave trade apology (Image: Getty)
“We should not pay a red cent to the descendants of slavery. It is the quintessence of insanity. You might as well pay me,” he added.
Warning of the endless precedent it would set for the country, Mr Johnson pointed out that Britain had invaded 171 of the 193 UN member states throughout history, concluding: “If we concede this ridiculous principle, of paying compensation for the regrettable deeds of our distant ancestors, we will be in the dock for eternity.”
The row erupted after Mr Burnham ditched Britain’s longstanding refusal to apologise for the transatlantic slave trade. Despite ruling out direct cash payouts, the Prime Minister sparked fury by confirming he is “open” to an official state apology. He also unveiled a £40million Caribbean aid package and a year-long “structured dialogue” to explore how the UK can make amends.
Yet the move backfired on both sides. Caribbean leaders and campaigners instantly dismissed the £40million as inadequate, demanding full restorative justice, while critics warned any formal apology would open the door to claims worth hundreds of billions.
The toxic row also dragged in the Royal Family ahead of a Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda. Buckingham Palace stepped in to distance King Charles from the crossfire, firmly clarifying that his role as head of the Commonwealth is about “inspiring and convening, rather than policy making.”