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TV historian Dan Snow has blasted a leading Brexiteer for ignoring Britain’s colonial past in a row over free trade.
Tory MEP Dan Hannan claims Britain became the “wealthiest and most powerful nation on Earth” when it abolished trade tariffs in from the 1840s onwards.
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In his article for the Telegraph, Hannan dismisses the suggestion that Britain’s empire-building – which saw more than 400million people under its control in the 19 century – played a significant part in its economic boom.
The Brexiteer claimed “seizing large and hot tracts of land…tended to be a net drain on the Treasury.”
Snow, who has presented TV documentaries detailing how the British Empire grew, took to Twitter to hit back at Hannan’s claims.
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