Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said that children should be taught about the benefits of the British Empire, rather than focussing just on the criticisms.

       Echoing comments from Kemi Badenoch, the minister for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Mr Zahawi said “I do” think children must learn about the positives stemming from colonial rule.

       "Let me give you an example. You know that my parents fled Iraq because of Saddam Hussein,” he said.

       "If you ask Iraq before the Ba'athist regime came into office about cronies and criminals, Iraq was left a legacy of a British civil service system which actually served the country incredibly well for many, many decades, and that's the sort of thing that, actually, children should be learning about.”

       "And of course all aspects of the empire, and I think that's important."

       His comments chimed with those made by Ms Badenoch last week, who suggested the British Empire brought “good things” to communities and urged the education system to tell “both sides” of history.

       “There were terrible things that happened during the British Empire, there were other good things that happened, and we need to tell both sides of the story,” she told Times Radio.

       “I think my upbringing and schooling in another country has really influenced the way that I look at these things.”

       “There wasn’t any sort of attempt to describe the British Empire as this awful, terrible thing that oppressed and victimised us.”

       Ms Badenoch went to school in Lagos, Nigeria where she said she received a nuanced education around the legacy of empire.

       Whilst admitting colonialism is not right, Badenoch argued that “every country, one way or another, did so”, and pointing fingers was not going to change the past.

       She added she refrained from “making herself the victim” as it wasn’t at all helpful, and teaching young people to see themselves as such was counterproductive.