The Green Party is being accused of ‘virtue-signalling nonsense’ for wanting Britain to potentially pay billions of pounds in compensation for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Zack Polanski’s party, which has enjoyed a surge in support under his leadership, has a long-standing policy of supporting reparations for historical slavery.
In October 2020, the Greens’ annual conference saw party members vote to back a pro-reparations motion.
And the party’s manifesto ahead of the 2024 general election pledged its support for establishing a parliamentary commission on ‘reparatory justice’.
Meanwhile, senior Green figures have piled pressure on King Charles to make a formal apology for trans-Atlantic slavery.
They have also spoken out in support of the Church of England’s controversial decision to set up a £100million fund to compensate for its historical links to slavery.
Most recently, in the wake of the Gaza crisis, Green activists used the party’s conference in Bournemouth last year to suggest reparations should be made to Palestinians.
Legal experts have suggested the Labour Government’s decision to formally recognise a Palestinian state could lead to demands for the UK to pay more than £2trillion in reparations due to Britain’s historic role in the Middle East.
There has been fresh scrutiny of Green policies following Mr Polanski’s election as leader in September last year.
The self-described ‘eco-populist’ has overseen a spike in his party’s poll ratings and membership numbers in recent months, with the party now posing a stern Left-wing challenge to Labour.
The Greens have also emerged as the bookies’ favourite to win this week’s parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton ahead of Labour and Reform UK.
Ahead of Thursday’s by-election contest, the Daily Mail has shown how the Greens back legalising prostitution and freeing up access to sexually explicit pornography.
It has also emerged how Green activists have said Zionism should be treated as a form of racism in a motion put forward for discussion at the party’s upcoming spring conference.
Other proposed conference motions include the UK leaving NATO and allowing transgender people to take part in women’s sport.
Previous estimates from campaigners and academics for slavery compensation owed by Britain to various countries have ranged from £205billion to nearly £19trillion.
The Greens’ 2024 manifesto stated the party wanted to ‘establish a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice to address reparations needed to redress global inequalities caused by the trans-Atlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans’.
It came after the motion passed at the party’s conference in 2020 supported the UK adopting ‘a holistic process of atonement and reparations’ over slavery.
In January this year, Green MP Carla Denyer said a formal apology from King Charles for trans-Atlantic slavery was ‘long overdue’.
‘The descendants of enslaved people deserve nothing less,’ she added, after research highlighted the British crown’s historic role in the slave trade.
Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake accused the Greens of ‘virtue-signalling nonsense’.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘While hard-working families are being hammered by rising bills and Rachel Reeves’s record tax burden, these lot want to write a blank cheque funded by taxpayers for events that took place centuries ago.
‘Britain doesn’t need lectures in guilt from politicians obsessed with rewriting history.
‘Our country helped shape parliamentary democracy, uphold the rule of law, and led the global movement to abolish slavery – achievements that changed the world for the better.
‘People want lower taxes, secure jobs and economic growth, not looney tunes, sixth form politics.
‘The Green Party should focus on today’s challenges instead of chasing headlines with nonsensical demands.’
A Reform spokesman said: ‘Once again the Green Party would have us sacrifice ourselves at the altar of virtue signalling.
‘Instead of sorting out the problems that hard-working Brits face today, they’d rather spend all their time worrying about matters that happened hundreds of years ago.
‘Only a vote for Reform on Thursday is a vote to put the interests of the people of Gorton and Denton first.’
