Burnham 'Open' to Formal Apology for Slavery Ahead of Caribbean Commonwealth Summit

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has chosen a newspaper column, ahead of a trip to the Caribbean, to say what he has not said before: that he feels sorrow and regret for the transatlantic slave trade, and that he is open to a formal apology from the British state. The piece ran in The Guardian, days before he is due to attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, known as Chogm, in the region.

He described the trade as a "brutal and barbaric violation" in which people were treated as property and worked to their deaths. He wrote that he wanted to express sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions, and to recognise that the legacy still shapes the world today. The words are personal, set down in his own name rather than in a government statement.

The timing 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 grew louder as the King toured the region.

Burnham's answer on the apology is open but not final. 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 form an important part of that process. "I am open to them," he said. He did not say that an apology will be made, or when.

On reparations, his position matches that of his predecessors. He rejected financial payments outright, writing that he does not believe they are the right answer. In his view, British people today cannot be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that took place in a different age, under different laws, and in which they played no personal part.

In place of payments, he proposed a drive on debt-servicing, intended to help countries repay over a longer period and at better rates. Three figures 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, he said, will also 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.

He framed the whole approach as a matter of national character. Having these difficult conversations to safeguard the Commonwealth's future, he wrote, is the right thing to do and also the patriotic thing, because the Britain he believes in is "confident, decent and brave." He noted that Britain led the world in abolishing slavery and argued it can show leadership again.

At the Caribbean summit, the test will be whether the offer of dialogue and debt relief satisfies leaders who have asked for an apology and reparations, and whether the stated openness to an apology turns into a commitment.