Burnham open to formal slavery apology but rules out reparations before Commonwealth summit

A conditional offer of apology

On Friday, 30 October, Prime Minister Andy Burnham published an opinion article in The Guardian saying he is open to a formal apology from the British state for the country's role in the transatlantic slave trade. He tied that possibility to a structured dialogue with individual countries and campaign groups, both at home and abroad, and said any formal statement would depend on how that dialogue turns out. Burnham also expressed his own sorrow and regret for the suffering caused by the trade, a step the Guardian describes as further than any previous prime minister has gone. He called the trade a brutal and barbaric violation of people who were treated as property and worked to their deaths. He said that listening to calls for an apology would be a central part of the process, adding:

“Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process and I am open to them.”

In the same article he wrote about the pain his country's history still causes, saying:

“I want to express my sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions of people, and to recognise the way it still shapes our world today.”

Earlier governments and the apology question

Tony Blair expressed deep sorrow and regret in 2007, yet full apologies on behalf of the government never followed. Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak said in 2023 that revisiting the country's history was no way forward. Keir Starmer, Burnham's Labour predecessor, argued that history cannot be rewritten. Burnham now accepts that the legacy of slavery still affects the world today, and he believes that facing the matter directly could strengthen the bonds within the Commonwealth. Caribbean states, backed by some African countries, have pressed the United Kingdom, France and Spain for reparations that include money, a full apology, support for health and education and debt cancellation.

Reparations rejected, debt relief offered

Burnham rules out financial reparations, arguing that people living in Britain today cannot be blamed for wrongs committed in an earlier era, under other legal rules, in which they had no personal involvement. Instead he will ask former prime minister Gordon Brown to lead a drive to restructure the debt of the poorest Commonwealth countries, so they can repay over a longer period at better interest rates. The Guardian reports that debt servicing costs for the poorest and most vulnerable Commonwealth countries are at their highest in more than 25 years. Burnham says more than 40% of those countries spend more on interest payments than on health. The IMF is expected to be included in the effort eventually. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley welcomed the dialogue but kept calling for reparations.

The summit and the King's tour

King Charles III is touring the Caribbean, and the issue has returned to the agenda during that visit. Burnham will attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, known as Chogm, in the week of 2 November, where the subject is expected to dominate. The New York Times reports that the shift could open the way for the King to apologize at that gathering. Chancellor John Healey and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband will join Burnham at the summit to help with the debt work, alongside Gordon Brown. The Commonwealth has 56 member states, many of them former British colonies where slavery was permitted. About three million enslaved Africans were carried on British ships across the Atlantic in the 1700s and 1800s to work on colonial plantations.