The UK’s new imperialist right: how we must strengthen the call for reparatory justice

Last week, Reform UK announced that, should they win an election, they will ban visas from all countries seeking reparations for enslavement, colonialism and native genocide by Britain.

This demonstrates not only a broader rightward shift in UK politics – which finds a safe haven in the historical amnesia of the populace, manifested in xenophobia and anti-migration sentiments – but also that colonialism and imperialism continues to reinvent itself in ways we must identify and continue to resist through demands for reparatory justice.  

Colonialism’s changing forms 

British involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and plantation economies subjected millions to extreme violence and dehumanisation. Individuals from Africa and the Caribbean were forcibly taken from their homes, packaged like sardines on ships, where they were unable to go to the toilet, faced numerous sicknesses, trauma, water shortages and died right besides each other. When they arrived on the plantation, they continued to face inhumane treatment. The Barbados Slave Code classified them as 'chattel’, such that they could be bought, sold, mortgaged, murdered and raped, facing inhumane working conditions, all while not being entitled to individual rights and freedoms. 

Today, the exercise of power does not take these same overt forms. Instead, it operates in a more subtle and invidious manner, through policies that shape access to opportunity, mobility and economic participation. In this context, visas are being weaponised, shaping who can move, work and build economic security. 

Against this backdrop, Reform spokesperson Zia Yusuf’s claimed that the UK has issued over 3.8 million visas, and paid £6.6 billion in foreign aid, overlooking the barriers of the visa process and the limited access for citizens of formerly colonised states. 

This sentiment is not unique to Reform. Labour’s own immigration policies – such as the banning of student visas from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan, and the recent introduction of visa requirements for citizens of Saint Lucia and other countries following a “disproportionate” rise in asylum cases – are indicative of a rightward shift in British politics, even where some of these states still retain the King as their titular head of state. 

Visa restrictions are also linked to the use of Citizenship by Investment programmes in Caribbean countries, which allow citizenship to be acquired through financial investment. The argument – often made without strong evidence – is that visa-free access to the UK and EU could be exploited by bad actors using such passports. This reflects a broader pattern: where anti-immigration policies struggle to stand on their own, they are reinforced by targeting the policies of the countries affected, often without clear evidence.  

The threat to withhold visas carries weight in a context where Caribbean populations abroad often exceed those at home, and where visas function as key instruments of mobility and opportunity. It reflects a historical  pattern in which resources are pillaged from colonised states and then their people dispensed when they are no longer seen as valuable – as seen during the Windrush Saga in the 1970s, where individuals were brought to the UK to contribute to their development, only to be discarded without citizenship. In this way, restricting visas can also act as a form of political pressure, pushing leaders in affected countries to reconsider policies deemed ‘objectionable’, or risk domestic consequences. 

Reparations and enduring inequalities  

Migration today is rooted in the legacies of enslavement and colonisation of black peoples. Britain should pay reparations, not only as redress, but to increase the state capacity of small states so that migration becomes optional rather than necessity. 

Caribbean states and those in Africa should not retreat in the face of threats from the right. Instead, they should intensify advocacy for reparatory justice. This is especially relevant given that, in March, the UN  recognised the trafficking and enslavement of Africans as “the gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparatory justice. Alongside these demands, continued efforts to strengthen domestic capacity remain essential so that such pressures carry less weight.  

At Emancipation in 1830 the British paid £20 million  – around 40% of the total national budget and £200 billion in today’s money – to the planters, while the formerly enslaved received nothing. 80% of these funds, went to absentee claimants, and the profits were reinvested in British infrastructure, railways, banks, insurance companies, credit, financial, educational and cultural institutions. In this sense, Britain's industrial development was heavily financed by capital extracted from the slave trade, specifically Caribbean slavery. The British state therefore remains morally and institutionally accountable. 

These legacies persist in institutions that exist today. For example, the predecessors of Barclays Bank received millions in compensation linked to slave ownership.  

In contrast, the CARICOM Reparations 10 Point Plan – often incorrectly dismissed as a “money grab” – is a framework created by the Heads of Government in the Caribbean Community to address these harms. It calls for formal apologies, investments in public health and education, repatriations, and support for Indigenous and African descended communities – including addressing the legacy of illiteracy and strengthening African knowledge systems. It also includes measures such as psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and debt cancellation. At its core, the plan recognises that reparations are not only about compensation, but about repairing the long-term damage of slavery and colonialism.  

A renewed call for reparatory justice 

The absence of even a formal apology from the UK government for what is widely recognised as one of the gravest crimes against humanity is difficult to justify. For many, this lack of recognition risks compounding an already profound historical injustice. 

Ultimately, as political parties in Britain pander to anti-immigrant sentiment, there must be an underlying understanding that the past is not simply the past for the formerly enslaved. It persists through the present, and the Caribbean must continue the calls for reparatory justice, even amidst the threats from a new form of imperialism.