MPs urge Anglican Church not to spend £100 million on reparations

Sarah Mullally who will be formally installed as Archbishop of Canterbury in January 2026. Photo: Gareth Fuller

In December 2025, a group of British MPs and members of the House of Lords appealed to the leadership of the Anglican Church, urging it to abandon plans to allocate £100 million for reparations linked to historical slavery, The Telegraph reports.

In a letter addressed to the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, 27 parliamentarians warned that such a move could set an “worrying precedent” to follow suit, since other organisations might be pressed to assume financial responsibility for the wrongs of the past.

To be clear, this is not about direct payments to specific states or to the descendants of enslaved people, but about creating a separate investment fund. The money would be directed to projects for communities considered to have suffered from the transatlantic enslavement of Africans in the 17th–19th centuries – above all in the Caribbean, West Africa, and among the African diaspora in the United Kingdom.

The parliamentarians, including Conservative Party representatives, note that by law the Church Commissioners’ funds are meant first and foremost to support parishes, maintain church buildings, and preserve the Church’s heritage. The letter stresses that at a time when many Anglican parishes are struggling financially and closing, redirecting such a significant sum looks, at the very least, deeply contentious.

In response, Church representatives said the initiative is consistent with the Anglican Church’s mission and aims at the transformation of unjust structures in society.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that for the first time in 500 years the head of the Anglican Church prayed together with the Pope of Rome.

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