Key events
Badenoch rejects apology idea, saying ‘when will the demands stop?’
On the slave trade apology, Badenoch repeats what she wrote on X yesterday, dismissing the discussion as “naval gazing”.
She also claims that “We have apologised. Tony Blair apologised twice.”
I assume she’s referring to Blair’s statements in 2006 and 2007, around the 200th anniversary of the British abolition of the slave trade, where the then PM expressed “deep sorrow and regret”, calling the slave trade trade “profoundly shameful” and a “crime against humanity”.
These statements stop short of an actual apology though. Blair avoided this, just like King Charles did earlier this week, partly due to the concerns that an explicit, formal apology for past wrongdoing could open the door to legal and financial claims.
Badenoch tells Kuennsberg she believes the call is coming now because “many of these [Commonwealth] countries are struggling with the same issues that we’re struggling with. They’re not becoming richer. They don’t know what to do, so they want to ask Britain for more money.”
When Kuennsberg says that the government is just talking about an apology, and has ruled out financial reparations, Badenoch goes:
When will the demands stop? What about if they ask for it next year? How many apologies are needed? Everyone knows the transatlantic slave trade was wrong. Britain played a huge role in stopping it.
The problem with this endless talk about apologies is that it is a distraction. It then means that people start focusing on things that happen hundreds of years ago, instead of solving today’s problems.
Badenoch also rejects the idea of rejoining the EU as a potential solution for the UK economy, no matter how popular it’s currently tracking in the polls
“I have been very clear, under my leadership, the Conservative Party is not joining the EU,” she says.
“I can’t even believe that we are reopening this debate. This is not something that is needed in order to cut welfare, in order to spend money on defence.
I’m not interested in magical thinking, i do not want to indulge in Andy Burnham’s fantasies about redoing the referendum, because he doesn’t have a plan for what to do today. He keeps talking about things what will happen after the next election. Where is this plan for now? We had a budget that did not do very much last week.
Badenoch is on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuennsberg show now, defending the Tory policy of scrapping inheritance tax on family homes, and saying that the Conservatives’ main offer to voters is on “fiscal responsibility” and “living within our means”.
She says that the Tories have found £70bn in savings – “the bulk of those savings have to come from welfare”.
She also argues that the money would be found in reducing the size of the civil service.“We have talked about reducing budgets in departments like DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sports).”
She also suggests cutting out government work duplication, singling out the environment agency and Natural England – the government adviser and public body for protecting and improving the environment.
Says Badenoch:
“We have to start looking at what government actually does. There is a lot of stuff that government does, that it doesn’t need to do.”
Caribbean leaders welcome ‘significant development’ of apology move
Burnham’s consideration of a formal apology has been welcomed by leaders of Caribbean nations, but differences remain on reparations.
Barbados’ prime minister, Mia Mottley, welcomed Burnham’s acknowledgment of the “brutality of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, his openness to a formal apology and his offer of structured dialogue”.
She noted the different approach on reparations but said:
Those differences should not prevent progress on health, education, tackling poverty and inequality, and fairer debt terms for vulnerable states.
Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda called Burnham’s comments a “significant and welcome development” and reiterated calls for reparation but said this could be addressed.
The Caribbean’s longstanding position on reparatory justice remains unchanged. Differences over financial compensation should be addressed through dialogue, but they need not prevent progress in areas where agreement is possible.
Burnham open to issuing apology over Britain’s role in slave trade
Andy Burnham says the UK will listen to calls to issue a formal apology, but doesn’t believe that reparations is the “right answer”.
He argued yesterday in The Guardian that Britain needs to acknowledge its “complicated history” in order to protect the Commonwealth, the 56 nations that grew out of the British Empire.
He’s headed to Antigua and Babuda in coming days. King Charles has been in the Caribbean this week where he’s faced calls for Britain to apologise and pay reparations.
The King, whose forebears directly benefited from slavery, admitted the “great suffering and injustices of the past” but did not issue an apology. It is UK government policy currently, to not apologise for the country’s role in the slave trade.
Burnham, introducing a potential change in his column yesterday, wrote:
The Britain I believe in is confident, decent and brave. We led the world in abolishing slavery – and we can show leadership again today.
For years, those members of the Commonwealth affected by the slave trade have asked for an honest conversation about the legacies of slavery.
By sticking our heads in the sand, we have damaged the ability of the Commonwealth to function.
He said his government is offering to begin a “structured dialogue” with those affected by slavery – but ruled out financial compensation for past wrongs.
The British state hugely benefited from the slave trade before it was outlawed in 1833, but Burnham says that “British people today” cannot be held liable for historic wrongs, “in which they played no personal part”.
Instead he said he would launch a new drive to restructure debt for the poorest Commonwealth countries – that would be led by former PM Gordon Brown – that would help them repay debt under more favourable conditions.
Opening
Good morning and welcome to our Sunday UK politics blog.
Budget week conversation has moved on a bit; Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is doing the rounds of the politics shows this morning and she has an op-ed in the Telegraph railing against the delayed defence spending commitment, claiming instead that the Conservatives could find that spend while cuting the deficit and lowering taxes.
But she’s also criticised the PM’s announcement yesterday in the Guardian that the government is considering a formal apology for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Andy Burnham, who is heading to the Caribbean next week for a Commonwealth leaders meeting, wrote in a column that Britain needed to “acknowledge its complicated history” but rejected the idea of financial reparations.
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.
Cabinet minister Emma Reynolds has repeated to Sky News this morning that an apology is symbolically powerful, but it wouldn’t then lead to financial reparations.
Let me be very clear that will not involve financial reparations, because the British people today shouldn’t be held liable for historic wrongs, wrongs that they had no part in.
I’ll have more on that shortly, including the reaction from Commonwealth leaders.
