Outrage after Tory MPs erupt into laughter over slavery in resurfaced video

A video of a Tory MP joking about slavery has resurfaced on social media, with many calling the laughter and chuckling of fellow Tory MPs “appalling” and “disgusting”.

In 2015, Lucy Frazer, MP for South East Cambridgeshire, laughed about how English general Oliver Cromwell defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and sent them as "slaves to the colonies".

She said at the time:

[Cambridgeshire] is the home of Oliver Cromwell, who defeated the Scots at Dunbar, incorporated Scotland into his Protectorate and transported the Scots as slaves to the colonies.

Waiting for her fellow Tory MPs to finishing their raucous laughter, she continued:

Now there is an answer to the West Lothian question – but not one that of course I would recommend.

The “West Lothian question” refers to whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales sitting in the House of Commons should be able to vote on matters that only affect England.

At the time, Frazer was forced to apologise for her comments, according to The Herald Scotland:

I am extremely sorry for any offence I have caused. That was not my intention. I have the highest regard for Scotland and the Scottish people.

But the recently resurfaced video has caused outrage on social media:

As many as 100,000 Scots were transported to the colonies to be sold into slavery.

According to the Egerton manuscript at the British Museum:

Every person or persons that shall be found begging and vagrant... may be shipped into a forraign collonie or plantation.

Of course, this number pales in comparison to the estimated 12 million African people forcibly removed from their homes and taken to the Americas as slaves.

Unknown millions died on the ships before ever making it to the foreign shores.