Former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has called for Britain’s former colonies to pay reparations to London for the “investment, effort and contribution” she claims the empire made in building them.

In a post on X, Braverman, a right-wing politician who defected from the Conservative Party to Reform UK earlier this year, entered the reparations debate by declaring: “The British Empire did so much good for the world.”

“Of course slavery was abhorrent but to expect the British people of the 21st century to pay for actions that took place in the 18th century has no basis in law," Braverman said. That claim is false. According to the British government, UK taxpayers were still paying off a £20m loan taken out in 1835 to compensate slave owners after abolition. The sum amounted to about 5 percent of the UK’s GDP at the time. In today’s money, that would be worth more than $3bn.