Britain at ‘tipping point’ over slavery apology after Burnham said he is open to discussion

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While the PM, who is due to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in the Caribbean next week, rejected calls for financial compensation, his comments were hailed as progress for reparative justice campaigning.

Theologian Professor Robert Beckford told BBC Radio 4 today: “It’s a big step and it’s partly due to incredible campaigning over the last three decades by reparative justice advocates both in Britain and in the Caribbean that we’ve reached a real tipping point.

“In Christian theology, a good apology is one that is matched with reparative action: you confess your faults and you attempt to make right the sin that you have committed or the wrong that you have done.

“We contrast that with a bad apology where you can say you’ve done something wrong but you do nothing about it.

“We are hoping that this will be a good apology: an attempt to connect confession and remorse with reparative action, healing the damage that has been done.”

Some Caribbean nations have renewed calls for Britain to apologise and pay reparations for its role in selling enslaved people for profit before the King’s tour of the region.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley led a group of Caribbean leaders who launched a new slavery reparations manifesto during a conference in Ghana in June.

Today Chancellor John Healey defended Mr Burnham’s consideration of a formal apology, but said British people today should not be held financially liable for the slave trade in which they played no part.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch claimed an apology would lead to more demands for reparations.

Green Party peer Natalie Bennett said that there’s a “clear moral case for addressing this grave historical crime.”

“It must not be forgotten that the slave owners were compensated richly, while the former enslaved people were not,” she added.

“But the argument is also a practical one: it’s critical to our ability to work with large groups of nations, including other middle powers, when the authoritarian leaders of the world’s superpowers are sidelining multinational institutions and breaking the rules that maintain global peace.”

Amnesty International UK’s international affairs lead Polly Truscott said: “The UK government should formally apologise for its role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and provide appropriate reparations for Britain’s role in slavery, the slave trade and colonialism.

“This must include not only redress for these historic wrongs, but also the dismantling of contemporary structures of racial discrimination and inequality which form part of the ongoing legacies of slavery and colonialism.

“The government must respond to the growing movement that has been calling for a formal apology and reparations, and it is vital Parliament sets up a commission of inquiry into this.”

Justice 4 Windrush CEO Colin McFarlane said: “I welcome Andy Burnham opening a discussion about a formal apology, I hope he will follow the example of the Dutch who have apologised and committed to investment in education, commemoration, and community initiatives.

“Action should not be limited to financial measures. it should include stronger teaching of slavery and colonial history in schools in England. Wales at least are doing this in the UK.

“If you don’t understand the history, you don’t see the injustice.”

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