Up for the fight: Caricom has hired British law firm Leigh Day, which recently won compensation for Kenyans tortured by the British colonial government during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s (above)

Britain is being sued with France and the Netherlands by 14 Caribbean countries demanding what could be hundreds of billions of pounds in reparations for slavery.

Caricom, a group of 12 former British colonies together with the former French colony Haiti and the Dutch-held Suriname, believes the European governments should pay – and the UK in particular.

More: DailyMail.co.uk