The UK government will not apologise over Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade at next week’s Commonwealth heads of government (Chogm) summit in Samoa, Downing Street has said.
Downing Street said on Monday that the government would not be paying reparations for slavery. News that neither an apology nor reparations are on the agenda could put Keir Starmer, who will attend the gathering, on a collision course with other nations.
All three candidates to succeed Patricia Scotland as the Commonwealth secretary general have said they support reparations for countries affected by slavery and colonisation.
King Charles is also due to attend the summit. Last year, he said he felt the “greatest sorrow and regret” at the “wrongdoings” for atrocities suffered by Kenyans during their struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
However, he stopped short of an apology, which was criticised as a “miss” by human rights organisations in Kenya. An apology would have needed to be agreed upon by ministers.
The UK government has confirmed to the BBC that even if the issue of historical links to slavery is raised at the summit, there are no plans for a symbolic apology.
There was speculation that the newly elected Labour government would apologise over Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. Last year, a number of backbench Labour MPs, including Bell Ribeiro-Addy, called for an apology to be party policy.
The foreign secretary, David Lammy, said in 2018 when he was an opposition MP: “As Caribbean people we are not going to forget our history. We don’t just want to hear an apology, we want reparations.”
However, Downing Street appears to be continuing the policy of the previous Conservative government. Last year Rishi Sunak rejected the idea of apologising and said “trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward”.
Peter Kyle, the science and innovation secretary, was asked about Lammy’s comments from 2018. He said this pre-dated Lammy’s current role.
“These are very, very tricky diplomatic challenges that we have as a country because of our legacy,” Kyle told LBC. “We have to deal with them with all sensitivity.”
In 2006, Tony Blair called the slave trade a “crime against humanity” in an article in New Nation but fell short of issuing an apology, despite pressure from campaigners and the archbishop of York.
A year later, when asked why he had previously stopped short of apologising during a news conference with Ghana’s then-president, John Kufuor, Blair said: “Well actually I have said it: We are sorry. And I say it again now.”
Starmer’s official spokesperson said on Monday that the prime minister would be in Samoa “to discuss the shared challenges and opportunities faced by the Commonwealth, including driving growth across our economies”.
Some UK institutions have begun the process of paying reparations unilaterally. The Church of England has pledged to put together a £1bn fund to address its role in the legacy of slavery. Last year the Guardian apologised for the role played by the newspaper’s founders in transatlantic slavery and announced a £10m-plus programme of restorative justice.
Labour’s decision to maintain the stance of previous Conservative governments that reparations are not even an issue to be discussed risks angering some Commonwealth countries before the summit.
Among its tasks is to pick a new secretary general in place of Scotland, the British peer and former attorney general who has been in the role since 2016.
Last month, the candidates who are in the running to replace Scotland, who are from the Gambia, Ghana and Lesotho, all backed the idea of financial reparations or another kind of “reparative justice” from countries that had engaged in slavery and colonisation.
The UK is facing increasing pressure internally and from other countries to consider the issue. Last year, the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations held a conference in London to agree a future approach in pushing on the issue.