Skip to main content
The Blair aide behind two oil-linked disasters
Solomon Hughes on how Shell tried to downplay an oil spill which destroyed a Nigerian fishing industry for a generation

Earlier this month Shell finally announced an out-of-court settlement paying £55 million to 15,000 Nigerian fishermen and their community in compensation for a massive oil spill which destroyed their fishing industry for a generation.

Shell admitted liability for the oil spill in 2011, but has been arguing about the size of the spill and the compensation for years. Martin Day of the fishermen’s lawyers Leigh Day welcomed the settlement but said it was “deeply disappointing” that Shell took so long to agree the payment.

In September 2013, Shell met the fishermen directly but, their lawyers said, the fishermen rejected an offer that was “derisory and insulting.”


 

Tories in convenient places



The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Labour's new deputy leader Lucy Powell at an event in central London, October 25, 2025
Features / 28 November 2025
28 November 2025

Martin Taylor, the hedge-fund multimillionaire who has poured millions into pushing Labour rightwards, helped finance Lucy Powell’s supposedly dissenting campaign — suggesting her victory was not the ‘soft-left’ rebellion some have claimed, says SOLOMON HUGHES

TORY HIGH SOCIETY:  Sir John Ritblat
Features / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025

It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES

COST CONTROL MODE: Health Secretary Wes Streeting during a visit to NHS National Operations Centre in London on July 25 2025
Features / 18 September 2025
18 September 2025

Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS

Various For Sale, Sold and Let By estate agent signs juxtaposed next to a Dreams store in Clapham, London
Class / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON