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

Writing in The Guardian ahead of a trip to the Caribbean, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to a formal British apology for the transatlantic slave trade. He has also said he will not consider paying financial reparations.

Burnham is due to attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, known as Chogm, in the Caribbean next week. In his article he set out a personal position first. He wrote that he wanted to express his "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 article follows renewed calls from Caribbean nations for Britain to apologise for its part in selling enslaved people for profit, and to pay reparations. Those calls came as the King toured the region.

On the apology, Burnham was careful about what he was and was not committing to. He said the government is offering a "structured dialogue" with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade. Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state, he wrote, will form an important part of that process, and he is open to them. He did not announce an apology. He said he was open to one.

On reparations, he was direct. "Some have called for financial reparations for the slave trade. I do not believe that is the right answer," he wrote. He argued 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. That keeps him in line with his predecessors, none of whom offered to consider reparation payments.

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

The UK will also, he said, support countries with the transition to renewable energy and with getting smaller countries heard on the world stage. Further work is planned on educating women and girls and on tackling poverty and inequality.

Burnham framed the approach as one of national character as well as interest. Having these difficult conversations to safeguard the Commonwealth's future, he wrote, is the right thing to do and "the patriotic thing to do." He said the Britain he believes in is confident, decent and brave, and that having led the world in abolishing slavery, it can show leadership again.

The summit is the next test. The structured dialogue, the debt measures and the question of whether an apology follows will all be watched there, along with how Caribbean leaders respond to an offer that includes an apology under consideration but excludes reparations.