Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch on Wednesday, May 1, insisted that colonialism and the slave trade played a “minor role” in Britain’s economic development.

The Nigerian born Business Secretary and Equalities Minister said that UK’s economic success is instead the result of ‘British ingenuity and industry’ as she welcomed a new book by a rightwing think tank.

Despite the British Empire once being geographically the largest the world has ever seen, political economist Kristian Niemietz claimed Britain’s growth was not financed by the slave trade or its imperial possessions.

Writing for the Institute of Economic Affairs, Dr Niemietz has argued that colonialism made only a ‘minor contribution’ to Britain’s economic development, ‘and quite possibly none at all’, with the benefits outweighed by the military and administrative cost of running an empire.