Ahead of a journey to the Caribbean, where Commonwealth leaders will gather, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has taken up one of the oldest and heaviest inheritances of the British story: the transatlantic slave trade, in which millions were treated as property and worked to death. He offers personal sorrow and regret, and leaves open the possibility of a formal apology from the state, while holding firm against financial reparations on the grounds that the living cannot answer for the deeds of a different age. Set against Caribbean voices that have grown louder, the moment asks whether reckoning
Burnham Open to Formal Apology for Slavery, Stops Short of Reparations Ahead of Commonwealth Summit
The transatlantic slave trade treated millions of people as property and worked them to their deaths, a historical harm whose legacy the article says still shapes the world today.
Ahead of a journey to the Caribbean, where Commonwealth leaders will gather, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has taken up one of the oldest and heaviest inheritances of the British story: the transatlantic slave trade, in which millions were treated as property and worked to death. He offers personal sorrow and regret, and leaves open the possibility of a formal apology from the state, while holding firm against financial reparations on the grounds that the living cannot answer for the deeds of a different age. Set against Caribbean voices that have grown louder, the moment asks whether reckoning with the past can be turned into a shared future, and whether words of contrition will be matched by the patient work of dialogue and debt relief.
Days before he travels to the Caribbean for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, Chogm, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has spoken publicly about the transatlantic slave trade. He described it as a brutal and barbaric violation, a system that treated people as property and worked them to their deaths, and he said he wished to express his personal sorrow and regret for the suffering it caused and for its effects that still shape the world.
The words come as Caribbean nations renew their calls for Britain to apologise and to pay reparations. On an apology, Burnham leaves a door open: the government will offer a structured dialogue with affected people, and he says he is open to calls for a formal apology from the British state, though he has not committed to one. On reparations he is firm, as his predecessors were. Britain, he argues, cannot hold people today liable for wrongs done in another age, under other laws, by people they are not.
In place of compensation, he will push a drive on debt-servicing, so that countries can repay over longer periods and at better rates, with the chancellor, foreign secretary and Gordon Brown at his side. Support for renewable energy, a stronger voice for smaller nations, and education for women and girls also feature. The summit will show whether the dialogue and debt proposals satisfy leaders who have asked for more, and whether the openness to an apology hardens into a promise.
In a piece written for The Guardian, Prime Minister Andy Burnham set out where he stands on the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, days before he is due to travel to the Caribbean for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, known as Chogm. He said he wanted to express his personal "sorrow and regret" for the suffering the trade caused.
Burnham described the trade as a brutal and barbaric violation, one in which people were treated as property and worked to their deaths. He wrote that he wanted to acknowledge the pain of so many millions and recognise that its effects still shape the world today.
The article arrives as Caribbean nations have renewed their calls for Britain to apologise for its part in selling enslaved people for profit, and to pay reparations. Those calls were sharpened while the King toured the region.
On the apology, Burnham left the door open. 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 that process. "I am open to them," he wrote. He stopped short of committing to one.
On reparations, he was direct, and consistent with his predecessors. Some have called for financial reparations, he noted, but he does not believe that is 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 had no personal part.
He framed the broader approach 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. It is not only in Britain's interests, he wrote, but reflects a country that is confident, decent and brave. He pointed out that Britain led the world in abolishing slavery and said it can show leadership again.
In place of compensation, 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. 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 back countries in their transition to renewable energy, work to give smaller nations a stronger voice on the world stage, and support efforts to educate women and girls and to tackle poverty and inequality.
The summit will be the first test of whether the structured dialogue and the debt proposals satisfy Caribbean leaders who have asked for more, and whether the openness on a formal apology turns into a commitment.
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Politics & Governance