Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade

I do not always agree with much of what the hon. Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) says, but I am broadly in sympathy with the points that he made this afternoon. I should begin, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) did, by declaring an interest. In 1983, when we commemorated the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, as distinct from the slave trade, I published a short life of William Wilberforce, which is now sadly out of print. [Interruption.] My right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks has the field to himself. When I was writing the book, I became increasingly aware of what a great man William Wilberforce was. I do not detract from what people have said about others, including Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and John Venn. The list is long and many anonymous people made a genuine contribution, especially the slaves themselves. However, William Wilberforce was the parliamentary spearhead and an extraordinary man—unprepossessing in appearance, short of stature, physically frail, yet with an indomitable spirit. He fought tenaciously, suffered many setbacks and, for 20 long years, embodied the abolitionist cause in this place. It is good for us as Members of Parliament to reflect on what a man who never held high office, nor ever aspired to it, could achieve by his persistence and—as Sir Samuel Romilly said at the time when slavery itself was finally abolished—by his sheer goodness. Wilberforce was not a party man. Some of my colleagues like to claim that he was a Tory, but he was not; he was an independent Member of Parliament. He was a very close friend of William Pitt, but, as I have said, he never aspired to high office. He was the absolute embodiment of what an independent-minded Member of Parliament can be, and his work is an example to us all of what such a man can achieve. I believe that he was the greatest Back Bencher of all time; I do not know whether my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks has come to the same conclusion—we shall have to wait for his book to be published to find that out. Wilberforce is certainly one of the pre-eminent figures in the parliamentary roll of honour, which includes Shaftesbury, Joseph Arch and many others. On almost exactly the same date as the Bill to abolish the slave trade received Royal Assent—25 March—it is good that we are reflecting on what one of our past parliamentary colleagues achieved by his campaign. Wilberforce was an inspiration. He was the conscience of the nation. He was not, of course, solely concerned with fighting to abolish the slave trade, although that is what he will always be most remembered for. He was a great Christian campaigner who wanted to bring his own particular religious fervour to the attention of people, believing that he had something to transmit to them. He was a great friend of Pitt, as I have said. He was also a great admirer of Fox. Pitt and Fox stood together with him against this ghastly trade. One thing he lamented about Pitt and Fox was that they did not have his religious conviction and fervour. We already have a fine portrait in the Palace of Westminster, and I would like us to have a special commemoration of William Wilberforce to mark this 200th anniversary. I have on my desk at home a little ashtray—one should not say ““ashtray”” these days, of course—which was produced by Wedgwood in 1983 and which reproduces the famous image of the black man in chains with the slogan around it:"““Am I not a man and a brother?””" That gave great inspiration to Wilberforce. I would love it to be reproduced as a plaque, and for it to be placed in the Members’ Lobby among the memorials to Prime Ministers, because Wilberforce achieved more than most of the Prime Ministers whom we rightly commemorate and revere in the Central Lobby today. It would be a splendid commemoration of this 200th anniversary if we could do something like that. Members have referred to the fact that what Wilberforce achieved 200 years ago in spearheading this campaign was not the end; of course it was not. However, we can draw various lessons from it that are highly relevant for today. One of them I would take from the speech that Wilberforce made on 18 May 1789, when he truly launched the parliamentary campaign. Sitting around him were Members who—as earlier speakers have reminded us—derived great wealth from the slave trade. However, Wilberforce in his campaign did not seek to castigate or attack his colleagues. He was prepared to accept that many of them were ignorant of the slave trade and what it all meant. He was prepared to give them that benefit of the doubt and to seek to enlighten them, and all his other colleagues, as to how great an evil this was. We can sometimes learn from that—that we must not attribute the worst motives to everybody. In trying to enrol them in a cause—whatever it may be—we must show them that we will give them the benefit of the doubt, but that, having set the facts before them, we want them to join the campaign. The campaign that we want everyone to join today is the one referred to by a number of colleagues: the campaign against human trafficking and the exploitation of men and women by others for profit. In those days, some Members of Parliament benefited from the slave trade, but I do not suppose that a single Member of Parliament benefits from these awful things today. However, many of us perhaps turn a blind eye. I was taken by the intervention of the hon. Member for Brent, East (Sarah Teather), who referred to the pages of nauseating advertisements that appear in local papers up and down the country. Would it not be a good thing if we could seek to persuade all those who take those advertisements for profit that they should not be taken? Would not that be one particular and significant step that we could take following today’s debate? If the wares were not advertised, people would not necessarily know about them. We may have to legislate on this, but perhaps we can do it by exhortation and example. I would love to see us set a few specific targets in this bicentenary year, and that is one that we could set. Of course, we also need to be utterly single-minded in rooting out organised crime. Last year, in my capacity as Chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, I presented in Northern Ireland a report on organised crime in the Province. Particularly apparent, apart from the dimension of paramilitary involvement, was the very important part that human trafficking was playing in the criminal’s apparatus. Human trafficking was joining counterfeiting of goods, smuggling and all the other illicit and revolting things, such as money laundering and fuel laundering. [Interruption.] I am glad that at this point, the hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) has entered the Chamber. He played a valuable part in that inquiry, and it was very significant and disturbing that human trafficking was becoming part of organised crime in Northern Ireland, too. It is doing so throughout the United Kingdom, and we must do everything that we can to root this evil out. One of the worst things that any of us have heard of in recent months is the stories of young girls—they have been referred to today by other speakers—some in their early teens, from eastern Europe and elsewhere who are brought here and used as instruments of pleasure by evil men, sometimes assisted by evil women. That has got to be attacked. So when we mark a very notable occasion—the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade is one—we want to do two things. Yes, we want to give thanks and to take a quiet pride in what was achieved through this place, although not entirely and solely. In her moving speech, the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), made that plain; nevertheless, we can all take pride in what was achieved here, whichever part of the House we sit in and whatever our political or personal background. There is always a time for giving thanks and celebration, but celebration is hollow and giving thanks is barren unless we also rededicate ourselves to attacking the descendent evils of the slave trade and slavery. Never again will those ships cross the water packed with human cargo, but even as we speak little boats are going into ports on the Mediterranean coast, setting out from Albania and crossing from north Africa, not with people in physical shackles—such as Clarkson took around the country, as the hon. Member for Islington, North reminded us—but shackled in a different way. We have no right to call ourselves a truly civilised society unless we do everything to root out that evil that is still in our midst. I hope therefore that as a result of today’s debate there will be a new dedication throughout the House to attack the descendent evils of slavery and the slave trade that still disfigure society today.