Wilberforce Described as One of 'Greatest Liberators in British History'

|PIC1|The Rt Hon William Hague MP has described Williams Wilberforce as 'one of the greatest campaigners and liberators in the whole of British history,' at a special preview screening of the new film, Amazing Grace, on 21 March.

Directed by Michael Apted, Amazing Grace charts Wilberforce's 20-year parliamentary struggle to get the British slave trade abolished.

Mr Hague, Shadow Foreign Secretary and MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, has written a new biography William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-slave Trade Campaignerdue out in the summer.

The event was held in Westminster and attended by more than 90 MPs and Peers. It was co-hosted by Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Education and Skills and MP for Kingston-upon-Hull West and Hessle.

"It's nice to see Yorkshire is stilI in charge!" said Mr Hague. "Being a Yorkshire MP, I have always revered the name of William Wilberforce and hope the film will inspire a new generation of people, political activists and of course, parliamentarians."

"William Wilberforce was my most distinguished predecessor as an MP for Hull," said Mr Johnson. "I live close to the house where he was born and work in Westminster close to his grave. I am delighted to co-host this special screening of a film which will add to the legacy of the bicentenary. It is an amazing story about an amazing man."

Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick also invited colleagues from the House of Lords to the event.

The release of the film, on 23 March, coincides with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK, 25 March 1807. Amazing Grace boasts an impressive line-up of leading British actors including Ioan Gruffudd (Wilberforce), Michael Gambon, Albert Finney (who plays John Newton, a reformed slave ship captain and writer of the hymn from which the film derives its title), Benedict Cumberbatch and Rufus Sewell.

Among special guests were Marshall Mitchell, Executive Vice President of Wilberforce University, Ohio, named after the reformer, and Ken Wales, producer of Amazing Grace.