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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.
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.