“Slavery reparations would be ‘a vast unjust fine on the British people’, says ex-Archbishop of Canterbury”

Key points

• Former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby calls reparations a moral evil.
• He argues forcing Britons to pay would punish the entire population for a crime not committed by them.
• Welby wrote in The Independent criticizing reparations as futile and unjust.
• He cites the UK’s 2026 context and the distance from the 1833 abolition as complicating justice.
• Welby suggests investing in technologies and collaboration with Caribbean nations instead.