King calls slave trade a ‘shameful chapter’ but offers no apology
Opening the Commonwealth summit in Antigua, the King said the transatlantic slave trade “fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow”, and that it “still casts a shadow” over the 56-nation association. He stopped short of a formal apology. Andy Burnham, also at the summit, is open to one but rejects reparations.
The King spoke of finding ways “to address the wrongs of the past with action for the future”, language of contrition on a Caribbean tour that has revived debate over Britain’s colonial legacy. Mr Burnham is the first prime minister willing to discuss the wording of a formal state apology, which Tony Blair stopped short of in 2006 with an expression of “deep sorrow”. He insists Britons today cannot be held liable for historical wrongs. Commonwealth nations have long sought both an apology and financial redress, so the summit tests whether one can be separated from the other.