Full Breakdown
Green Party Candidate Antoinette Fernandez Faces Backlash Over Slave-Trading Ancestry While Pushing Reparations
5/5/2026, 8:49:46 PM
Reparations Campaign and Candidate Profile
Antoinette Fernandez, reparations officer for the Green Party’s Global Majority Greens, is standing as a councillor for the Lea Bridge ward in Hackney, east London, in the upcoming local elections. She is calling for British taxpayers to fund reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, a demand amplified after a United Nations vote in March supporting reparations from former colonial powers.
Ancestral Links to Lagos Slave Trade
Fernandez is the daughter of Abiola Dosunmu, the Queen Mother of Lagos, and the late Antonio Deinde Fernandez, an oil- and-mining billionaire who served as a UN ambassador. Historical records link her maternal ancestors, the Obas of Lagos, to the slave trade: one owned 1,400 enslaved people, and another imported slaves from Brazil for construction projects in Lagos.
Political Opposition
Reform UK mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham labelled Fernandez “the ultimate hypocrite”. A Reform councillor added that “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 dismissed the Greens as “not a serious political force” and accused them of “hard-Left activism”.
Green Party’s Official Response
The Green Party said the attacks on Fernandez’s lineage were racist and intended to undermine reparative justice. Party officials argued that personal ancestry does not negate the moral case for reparations and highlighted the UN vote urging former colonial powers to consider compensation.
Data and Financial Context
The UN judge’s 2023 estimate placed potential reparations at up to £18 trillion. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 and later spent “tens of billions” on its suppression. Fernandez’s father’s net worth was $8.7 billion (£6.5 billion) at his 2015 death. Fernandez attended Millfield School, where annual fees exceed £60,000.
Verbatim Quotes
- “The local election candidate has campaigned for British taxpayers to pay reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and said that politicians who oppose it 'show an appalling arrogance'.”. — Antoinette Fernandez, Green Party reparations officer
- “the ultimate hypocrite”. — Laila Cunningham, Reform UK mayoral candidate
- “But the Green Party said that reporting Ms Fernandez's lineage is 'racist' and a 'bad-faith attempt to undermine the case for reparative justice'.”. — Green Party spokesperson
What’s Next
Fernandez’s candidacy will be decided in the upcoming Hackney council elections. The UN reparations vote has not yet been translated into a concrete UK plan for compensation.
