Burnham open to calls for formal British apology for slave trade, rejects reparations

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to calls for a formal apology for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade, but has ruled out financial reparations ahead of next week's Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to calls for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, but has ruled out financial reparations ahead of next week’s Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda.

In an article published in The Guardian on Friday, Burnham proposed a “structured dialogue” with countries and communities affected by the slave trade, saying Britain needed to confront its history to help safeguard the 56-member Commonwealth.

“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,” he wrote.

Burnham also expressed “sorrow and regret” for the suffering of millions of people subjected to the trade, in which Africans were abducted, transported across the Atlantic and sold into slavery.

But he rejected calls for financial reparations, saying he did not believe that people in Britain today could be held liable for historical wrongs committed under different laws and in which they had played no personal part.

Instead, he said he would launch an initiative to help the poorest Commonwealth countries restructure their debt, allowing them to repay over longer periods and at more favourable interest rates.

The proposal received a cautious welcome from Caribbean leaders and reparations campaigners.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley welcomed Burnham’s openness to a formal apology and said her country would engage in good faith while continuing to pursue reparatory justice.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations, said the government’s position still fell short of a formal state apology. She argued that acknowledging Britain’s role in slavery was essential to establishing equality among Commonwealth members.

Denis O’Brien, founder of The Repair Campaign, described Burnham’s statement as disappointing and called on the British government to issue an immediate formal apology, saying it would be a significant symbolic step towards reparatory justice.

The renewed calls for an apology have come during King Charles III’s Caribbean tour. In the Bahamas, he referred to the “great suffering of the past”, while in Guyana he visited a site where 33 people involved in the 1823 Demerara rebellion against British rule were hanged.