A Green Party candidate who has pushed for Britain to pay trillions of pounds in slavery reparations is descended from a Nigerian royal family that traded slaves, it has been claimed.
Antoinette Fernandez is the “reparations officer” for the Green Party’s Global Majority Greens group, which works towards “racial and environmental justice”.
Ms Fernandez is also the daughter of a billionaire – Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez – who was one of Africa’s richest men.
The candidate for Lea Bridge, Hackney, has campaigned for taxpayers to pay reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, and has previously said politicians who oppose it “show an appalling arrogance”.
The Green Party hopeful is the daughter of the Queen Mother of Lagos, and has been given the title “princess” by the Nigerian press.
Ms Fernandez’s father, Antonio Deinde Fernandez, was a businessman and UN ambassador who is said to have made his money in oil, gas, and mining, and his reported net worth was £6.5billion when he died in 2015.
Her mother is a descendant of the Obas (kings) of Lagos, some of whom are documented as “major” slave traders who made “lucrative commissions from slave deals”.
One of her ancient relatives owned 1,400 slaves, and a second brought back slaves that had been sent to Brazil to build houses in Lagos, according to a historian.
Antoinette Fernandez is a descendant of a Nigerian Royal Family that traded slaves
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They added that the family accrued wealth during the slave trade, which they used to purchase “velvet clothes, royal umbrellas, hats, and stylish robes”.
Both the Conservatives and Reform UK have branded Ms Fernandez the “ultimate hypocrite” for demanding Britons pay reparations.
However, the Green Party has said that reporting Ms Fernandez’s family history is “racist” and a “bad-faith attempt to undermine the case for reparative justice”.
Britain helped to abolish the slave trade in 1807.
Reform Uk’s Laila Cunningham has branded Ms Fernandez the ‘ultimate hypocrite’
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Reform UK’s London mayoral candidate, Laila Cunningham, said: “While Brits are crushed by the cost-of-living crisis, she demands we fork out billions more in slave reparations.
“Even though Britain has already spent tens of billions wiping out the slave trade.”
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said her candidacy “fits a pattern’ for the Green Party.
“The Greens are not a serious political force. They have been captured by hard-Left activism and student politics.”
In March, the UN voted in favour of former colonial leaders paying reparations for slavery, with a UN judge saying it could cost up to £18trillion.
After the decision, the Green Party candidate said: “Britain and the US in particular need to acknowledge the inhumane crimes they inflicted on the African people for centuries and the ongoing impact of those crimes on the Global South.
She has described her upbringing as “privileged”, having attended Millfield School in Somerset, which costs more than £60,000 a year.
Ms Fernandez has been contacted for comment.