Andy Burnham is open to increasing financial assistance for Commonwealth countries to help atone for Britain’s role in the slave trade.
In a break with established government policy, The Telegraph understands that Mr Burnham will consider demands for investment in healthcare and education from African and Caribbean countries.
Commonwealth leaders said Mr Burnham had made an “essential first step” towards a reparations deal, after he said he was open to making a formal apology for slavery.
On Monday, Mr Burnham and the King will attend a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua, where reparations campaigners have promised widespread protests.
Mr Burnham has ruled out paying a lump sum towards reparations, arguing that his Government cannot be held responsible for wrongdoing centuries ago.
But he will this week offer to open a “structured dialogue” with nations affected by the slave trade and listen to calls for development funding.
The UK already sends large aid packages to some Commonwealth countries, including Nigeria, which will receive £75m this year, and Jamaica, which will receive £2.4m.
Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, welcomed Mr Burnham’s decision to open slavery talks, and said she expected “investment in health and education” and a “development partnership” with the UK.
Andrew Holness, the prime minister of Jamaica, said he hoped for “meaningful” discussions on “reparatory justice”.
No additional aid payments will be made in the current financial year because the UK’s overseas development aid has been settled with the Treasury.
But a final settlement with Commonwealth countries in future years could include taxpayer-funded development or private finance development deals in education or health projects, The Telegraph understands.
In recent years, the Foreign Office has moved towards development deals, in which the Government shares in the returns on investment overseas, as traditional aid budgets have shrunk.
Mr Burnham’s comments on the eve of CHOGM mark a significant shift from the refusal of previous governments to engage with conversations about the legacy of slavery.
The Prime Minister said in an article for the Guardian on Friday that “listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process and I am open to them”.
The King, who will also address CHOGM, will speak about the issue of slavery with “unflinching honesty” and “sincere sorrow” but is not expected to offer an apology.
He is understood to have been made aware of Mr Burnham’s plans to address the issue in advance of his arrival at the summit.
Sources fear that Mr Burnham’s statement risks dragging the King into a party-political issue, with Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, saying it had put extra “pressure” on him.
Speaking on Sunday, Mrs Badenoch argued that an apology would give countries a reason to ask Britain for money.
Asked what she believed would be the problem with the UK saying sorry, she told Sky News: “It’s because of what will happen next.
“What I’m worried about is that this CHOGM summit is yet another opportunity for people to start asking Britain for money because of the slave trade.”
Sir Michael Ellis, a former attorney-general, said Mr Burnham would increase the risk of a successful legal bid for reparations if he apologised.
“It’s tantamount to accepting liability,” he said. “If Burnham goes to an international conference and apologises, he is making it easier for those who want to take the UK to an international tribunal such as the UN, as they did with Chagos.”
The Telegraph previously revealed that the African Union was seeking a ruling from the International Court of Justice on reparations, hoping to replicate the legal strategy that forced Britain to agree to hand over the Chagos Islands.
Caribbean lawyers are also working on a reparations lawsuit against Britain by using a United Nations treaty on racism.
In 2021, Germany agreed a deal to give more than €1bn (£870m) to Namibia to atone for the genocide of native tribes, while carefully avoiding calling the payments “reparations” or opening itself up to legal responsibility.
Apology ‘an important first step’
Mr Burnham’s intervention was hailed by Philip J Pierre, the St Lucian prime minister and chairman of the Caribbean Community, who said that “no British prime minister has gone this far before”.
He said: “An apology is an essential first step, and we would receive a formal apology from the British state as a moment of historic importance.”
But he added that he did not accept Mr Burnham’s view that reparations were “not the right answer”.
“Nor do we accept the argument that responsibility falls away because the people of Britain today played no personal part in these crimes,” he said.
“Reparatory justice has never been about individual guilt. It is about the responsibility of states and institutions – and that responsibility does not expire with the passing of generations.”
Ms Mottley said: “I thank Prime Minister Burnham and his Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, for breaking new ground and recognising that this is the right thing, and the moral thing, to do by ensuring that we move to the next stage of engagement on this difficult and emotional issue.”
Mr Holness said his government was “encouraged” by Mr Burnham’s remarks, and would “look forward to the discussions and actions that will follow”.
Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, who is hosting CHOGM, said disagreement on “financial compensation” did not need to “prevent progress in areas where agreement is possible”.
Speaking after a church service attended by the King and Queen, Mr Browne said if there was no compensation for the UK’s role in the transatlantic slave trade there could be a repeat of “atrocities” sometime in the future.
‘If there is no compensation, there will be a repeat’
He told ITV: “I understand the politics in the UK, in which it may be a difficult proposition for him to agree to any form of reparations, but that just does not negate the need for reparations.
“If there’s no compensation, there’s likely to be a repeat of those atrocities sometime in the future, and you can see what is happening globally already.”
Mr Browne reiterated his view that an Antiguan should replace the British monarch in the role, saying “I would like to see Antigua and Barbuda become a republic”.
John Mahama, the president of Ghana and the African Union lead on reparations, hailed Mr Burnham’s comments as a “watershed moment”. He said that a deal could be reached even if views on reparations were not “identical”.
Mr Burnham has said he would pursue a plan to restructure debt for certain Commonwealth countries and has asked Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, to work with international lenders to do so.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are committed to working with Commonwealth partners on issues facing the world, including the role of private finance in tackling global debt issues, addressing the climate crisis and supporting economic development.”
Comments
Post a Comment