Sir Lenny Henry calls for Black people to be paid £18trillion in slavery reparations

Sir Lenny Henry believes Britain should pay slavery reparations to the country’s black population.

The comedian, whose parents were Jamaican immigrants, rose to fame in the early 1980s.

His self-titled sketch show, The Lenny Henry Show, first hit screens in 1984, while he also went on to found the charity Comic Relief with Richard Curtis. In recent years, he has appeared in shows including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and The Witcher: Blood Origin.

He’s now also co-written a book, titled The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work, in which he helps argue that the UK should distribute £18trillion in ‘compensatory payments’.

Set to be released later this week, the book sees Sir Lenny consider the argument that ‘all black British people…need