Slavery audit cost taxpayers £50k

MORE than £50,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on an audit by Scotland’s biggest council which condemned explorer David Livingstone over alleged slave trade links.

Dr Livingstone, a British hero of the Victorian era, spent more than 30 years as a missionary in Africa. But a report by Glasgow City Council into statues, buildings and streets with alleged connections to slavery said he had defended cotton traders.

The exercise could lead to the removal of city statues or street names.

In response to a freedom of information request, the local authority said: ‘The council paid a fee of £50,135.19 to commission the Glasgow Slavery Audit Report.’

Robert Poll, of the Save Our Statues campaign, said: ‘The taxpayers of Glasgow will be rightly furious to see £50,000 of their money squandered on an academic indulgence that changes nothing.’

Glasgow City Council said: ‘This work is about allowing the city to have an honest conversation with itself about its past.’