The moral case against slavery reparations

Last December, as reported by The Sunday Times, the Shadow Home Office Minister Katie Lam and 26 other MPs co-signed a letter warning that the Church Commissioners’ slavery reparations plan (to make “a funding commitment of £100 million, to invest in a better future for all, working with and for communities affected by historic transatlantic slavery”) risked setting a “worrying precedent”.

The letter also explained that: “at a moment when churches across the country are struggling to keep their doors open – many even falling into disrepair – it’s wrong to try and justify diverting £100million to a project entirely separate from those core obligations.”

At the same time, the Church of England’s own anti-reparations movement has become increasingly vocal in its opposition to the Church Commissioners’ 2024 plan. That movement has been particularly critical of the Commissioners framing slavery reparations as a response to “research [that] showed that Queen Anne’s Bounty, a predecessor fund of the Church Commissioners, had links (through investments it made and benefactions it received) with transatlantic chattel slavery.”