Patrick Robinson says £18tn in slavery reparations from Britain is an underestimation (Image: Getty)
A judge who ruled Britain should hand back the has also called for the UK to pay over £18trillion in slavery reparations.
Patrick Robinson was one of the judges who ruled against Britain when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said “as rapidly as possible” in an advisory opinion published in February 2019.
The ICJ ruling has been used as a key argument in favour of Britain handing back the archipelago to Mauritius.
Britain is in talks with Mauritius about handing over sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory, but this would mean relinquishing the strategically important Diego Garcia military base, used by the United States.
A figure for the value of the deal has not been disclosed, but it has been .
Mr Robinson was a ICJ member between 2015 and 2024. He is a leading backer of Britain paying slavery reparations and, in 2023, co-wrote a United Nations report which said the UK owes over £18tn to 14 countries.
Patrick Robinson ruled the UK was obliged to surrender sovereignty of the Chagos Islands (Image: Getty)
The former ICJ judge gathered a group of experts in law, economics and history for the Brattle Group Report on Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery, which according to the was seen as “one of the most comprehensive” attempts to put a figure on the cost of harms caused by slavery.
Mr Robinson described the huge sum as an “underestimation” of the damage caused by the slave trade, arguing that once a state commits a wrongful act it is obliged to pay reparations.
The notes: “Our enslaved ancestors were not in a position to press for reparations, but we are and we must”.
News of Mr Robinson’s support for reparations comes after the revealed another judge involved in the Chagos Islands ruling was a member of China’s foreign affairs ministry who sided with in a separate ruling about the war in .
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told the publication: “The ICJ court had judges appointed by (Vladimir) Putin and Xi (Jinping), and now we learn that one is pursuing vexatious reparations claims against the UK.
“The court’s judgment isn’t binding – if Starmer has a backbone he’d just ignore it. Each day we learn something new that somehow makes this deal even more ludicrous. This cowardly surrender by Starmer must end.”
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The UK is in talks with Mauritius about handing over sovereignty of the islands (Image: Getty)
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary John Healey refused to say on Wednesday (February 26) whether the Government’s boost to defence spending includes funding which is being used for the Chagos Islands deal.
Asked by Times Radio if the agreement being negotiated with Mauritius was being accounted for in the funding increase, Mr Healey said: “This is about our defence spending. It’s about our mainstream defence budget.
“It meets an election commitment to meet 2.5% (of GDP spent on defence) at least three years earlier than anyone expected.
“And as far as the Chagos Islands go, that’s a deal that’s in the pipeline. It’s not yet signed and not yet ratified in any treaty that will be necessary before Parliament.”
Pushed on whether any money for the Chagos deal is part of the defence spending increase, Mr Healey said there is no spending on the Chagos Islands “unless and until” a deal is in place.
He added: “And that’s a deal we’re looking to strike that will safeguard the operational sovereignty of an absolutely essential base, both for us and for the US for the rest of this century and beyond.”
Conservative former defence minister Andrew Murrison suggested on Tuesday that money earmarked for the Chagos deal could instead be spent on the Armed Forces.