Burnham Open to Formal Apology for Slave Trade Ahead of Caribbean Commonwealth Summit, But Rules Out Reparations

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has put his name to a newspaper article in The Guardian, written ahead of next week's Commonwealth heads of government meeting in the Caribbean, in which he says he is open to a formal apology on behalf of the British state for the transatlantic slave trade. He also says, plainly, that he will not pay reparations.

The piece opens the door on one question and closes it on another. Burnham wrote that he wanted to express his personal "sorrow and regret" for the pain and suffering of so many millions, and to recognise the way the trade still shapes the world today. He described it as a "brutal and barbaric violation" of people who were treated as property and worked to their deaths.

The timing is not incidental. Caribbean nations have renewed their calls for Britain to apologise for its role in selling enslaved people for profit, and to pay reparations, while the King has been touring the region. Burnham's article is, in effect, the government's answer to both demands before the summit begins.

On the apology, he went further than a statement of personal feeling. He said the government is offering a "structured dialogue" with those affected by the slave trade, and that listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will be an important part of it. "I am open to them," he wrote. He did not commit to delivering one.

He framed the effort as a matter of national character. Having these difficult conversations to safeguard the Commonwealth's future, he argued, is the right thing to do and also the patriotic thing to do, not only because it serves British interests but because the Britain he believes in is "confident, decent and brave." He added that Britain led the world in abolishing slavery and can show leadership again.

On money, he held the line of his predecessors. "Some have called for financial reparations for the slave trade. I do not believe that is the right answer," he wrote. His reasoning was that British people today cannot be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part.

In place of reparations, he said he would seek to launch a drive on debt-servicing, aimed at helping countries repay over a longer period and at better rates. Chancellor John Healey, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and former prime minister Gordon Brown will join him at the summit to help with that work.

The UK will also, he said, support countries in the transition to renewable energy, work to get smaller countries heard on the world stage, and back efforts to educate women and girls and to tackle poverty and inequality.

What to watch at the summit is whether the structured dialogue takes concrete form, whether the apology he says he is open to becomes a commitment, and how Caribbean leaders respond to a debt initiative offered in place of the reparations they have asked for.