UK PM Burnham Says He Is 'Open' to a Formal Slavery Apology Ahead of Commonwealth Summit — but Rules Out Reparations

Writing in The Guardian ahead of next week's Commonwealth summit in Antigua, Andy Burnham expressed 'sorrow and regret' and offered a structured dialogue — while campaigners speaking for 15 Caribbean nations said only a full and formal apology will do.

Awaaz Punjab Investigations Desk31 October 20264 min readRead in all 3 languages

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is "open" to calls for Britain to formally apologise for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, while ruling out financial reparations, the BBC reported on Saturday.

Source: BBC News

Writing in The Guardian ahead of next week's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Caribbean, Burnham described the slave trade as a "brutal and barbaric violation," expressed his personal "sorrow and regret" for the suffering it caused, and said Britain must "face up to the past."

"We are offering a structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade. 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," he wrote. A government source told the BBC the move was "morally the right thing to do."

On reparations, he kept the line of previous British governments. "Some have called for financial reparations for the slave trade. I do not believe that is 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. Instead, he said he would seek a drive on debt servicing to help countries repay over a longer period at better rates, work he said Chancellor John Healey, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and former prime minister Gordon Brown will join him in at the summit.

The British government has never formally apologised for slavery or offered reparations. Burnham's statement comes as King Charles III tours the Caribbean — referring to the "suffering of the past" in the Bahamas and visiting in Guyana the site of a rebellion by enslaved people against British authorities — and as Caribbean nations renew their calls before the summit in Antigua.

Source: Press Association via The Oldham Times

The statement goes further than the position in place when the King's tour began on October 27, when — as reported at the time — Buckingham Palace said the King would not formally apologise and ministers had simply ruled out reparations. Burnham's article is the first time the Prime Minister himself has said he is open to calls for a formal state apology, even as the reparations line stays unchanged.

Campaigners said the statement did not go far enough. Bell Ribeiro-Adday, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the government's acceptance of the role it played was welcomed but had "still fallen short of a formal state apology, and that actually costs nothing," adding: "Acknowledgment is not the same as understanding." Denis O'Brien, founder of The Repair Campaign, called the statement disappointing and said the demand for an apology from the 15 CARICOM countries would not be quelled ahead of the summit.

Sources

BBC News, Oct 31 2026 (Burnham open to calls for a formal apology for Britain's role in the slave trade; reparations ruled out; structured dialogue offered; government source: morally the right thing to do; Ribeiro-Adday reaction on Radio 4 Today)

The Guardian, Oct 31 2026 — Prime Minister Andy Burnham's own article (slave trade a brutal and barbaric violation; sorrow and regret; open to apology calls; Britons today cannot be held liable for historical wrongs; debt-servicing drive instead of reparations, with Healey, Miliband and Brown at the summit), as quoted by BBC/PA

Press Association, Oct 31 2026, via The Oldham Times (Burnham due at Commonwealth heads of government meeting in the Caribbean next week; King Charles touring the region; Denis O'Brien of The Repair Campaign: demand from the 15 CARICOM countries will not be quelled)