Burnham 'open' to calls for slavery apology but rules out reparations ahead of Commonwealth summit

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is "open" to the possibility of the UK formally apologising for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, but has ruled out financial reparations. Writing in the Guardian, Burnham described the transatlantic slave trade, in which Africans were trafficked to the Americas, as a "brutal and barbaric violation" and said Britain must "face up to the past". He said he wanted a "dialogue with those affected" and was open to "calls for an apology", but argued reparations were "not the right answer". "I do not think that British people today can 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," he wrote. He added that Commonwealth countries had for years been asking for an "honest conversation", and that he wanted to offer a "structured dialogue" in which "listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process. I am open to them." Chancellor John Healey told the BBC that the prime minister was "open to a discussion" about an apology because it was "the right thing, particularly ahead of the Commonwealth heads conference". He stressed that a formal apology does not mean British people should "accept the financial liability for any part in things that happened hundreds of years ago in which they had no role". The statement comes ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which starts on 1 November in Antigua and will be opened by King Charles III as part of his tour of the Caribbean. During the first leg of the tour in the Bahamas, the King made reference to the "suffering of the past", and later visited the site of a rebellion of enslaved people against British authorities in Guyana. As the King tours the region, there have been renewed calls for an apology. The British government has never formally apologised for slavery or offered to pay reparations, and Burnham has stuck with the policy of his predecessors. In 2007, Tony Blair expressed "deep sorrow and regret" over the UK's role in the slave trade. David Cameron ruled out reparations in 2015, urging Caribbean countries to "move on" during a visit to Jamaica. Rishi Sunak dismissed calls for an apology and reparatory justice in 2023, saying "trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward", and in 2024 Sir Keir Starmer ruled out compensation, saying he wanted to focus on the future of the Commonwealth. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chairwoman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations and MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, welcomed the government's acceptance of the role it played, but told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it had "still fallen short of a formal state apology and that actually costs nothing". "Acknowledgement is not the same as understanding," she said, adding that until the UK apologised it would never be on an equal footing with Commonwealth nations. She said that, to her knowledge, no invoice for financial reparations had been presented to the UK, and that her worry was the focus on financial reparations, which she called "deeply problematic". Political reaction was divided. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said there was "no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born", adding in a post on X that Labour was "already spending too much on Britain's welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare". Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: "I do think we have a duty there and saying sorry is always quite a good thing." Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has sought reparations, welcomed Burnham's statement, saying she would engage in good faith while still seeking reparatory justice. Denis O'Brien, founder of The Repair Campaign, said the statement was disappointing and did not go far enough, calling on the government to "stop obfuscating and give a full and formal apology now", which he described as "a significant and symbolic first step towards reparatory justice". From the 16th Century, English authorities and the monarchy were prominent participants in the centuries-long slave trade, though Britain also played a key role in ending it through Parliament's passage of a law to abolish slavery in 1833. Under that law, British plantation owners were paid for the loss of the people they had enslaved, and the UK only finished paying off the debt incurred to cover those payments in 2015. Downing Street believes it is in the UK's interest to strengthen the Commonwealth at a time when China and Russia are seeking to exert influence, with President Vladimir Putin having hosted a Russia-Africa summit in Moscow this week.