Fury as Commonwealth chief tells King Charles to apologise for slavery

Commonwealth secretary-general Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has said King Charles III should apologise for slavery, arguing that the time has arrived for member states to have a serious conversation about reparations.

Ms Botchwey said Commonwealth nations wanted the monarch to acknowledge the transatlantic slave trade, adding that such an apology “wouldn’t hurt”.

“I don’t believe we can run away from it,” she said. “But it is important to determine what form reparations should take, and that is something that will emerge eventually.

“As difficult as the subject is, I believe countries will reach some conclusions. Whether that means financial payments or reparations in kind is ultimately a matter for the countries to decide.”

The former Ghanaian foreign minister told Sky News that reparations might include “concessional financing”, debt relief, action on climate-related concerns or the return of cultural artefacts.

Asked whether the King should apologise for slavery, Ms Botchwey replied: “That’s what the countries have asked for… It wouldn’t hurt to have that. Not at all.”

However, shadow home secretary Chris Philp dismissed the suggestion as “nonsense”, telling the Daily Mail: “People today aren’t responsible for what happened hundreds of years ago.

“Many societies appallingly practised slavery, including many in Africa. The UK was the first to enforce abolition. Calls for reparations are absurd and shouldn’t even be entertained.”

The comments come as Buckingham Palace said the King’s Caribbean tour next week would confront “the darkest days of our past”, amid continuing debate across the Commonwealth over slavery and reparations.

Charles is facing fresh pressure to apologise for the UK’s part in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people as he prepares to attend a major Commonwealth leaders’ meeting with Queen Camilla in Antigua and Barbuda next month.

Reparations, whether through financial compensation or other forms of redress from countries linked to the slave trade, are also expected to feature during his separate visits to Guyana and The Bahamas.

The King acts on the advice of his ministers, and it is understood that the Government has not asked him to issue an apology or support reparations, in line with its established position.

In March, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution describing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”. The UK and EU member states were among 52 countries that abstained.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who is expected to attend the Commonwealth summit alongside Prime Minister Andy Burnham, recently repeated the Government’s stance.

“I don’t think reparations are the answer,” he told Politico. “I’ve had those discussions already with some of our Commonwealth colleagues.”

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said earlier this month that governments were holding important discussions about the legacy of colonialism and the lasting effects of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.

“While these are primarily matters for Governments to address, His Majesty’s previous statements on them have been unequivocal,” the spokesperson said, describing slavery as an “atrocity” that “forever stains our history”.

The Palace added that the visit would not avoid “the darkest days of our past”, as the King has described them. However, at the request of host nations, the programme will focus mainly on each country’s present and future, with schedules shaped in consultation with their governments and tailored to their priorities.

‘That said, it is important to note here the work His Majesty himself has done over many years both to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and to find creative ways to ‘right inequalities that endure’.

‘As you would therefore expect, opportunities will be found during the visit to reflect and renew his personal, wholehearted and continuing commitment to that process.’

Britain’s royal family has a long association with the transportation and selling of enslaved people for profit.

Elizabeth I backed the lucrative dealings of John Hawkins, one of Britain’s first slave traders, and Charles II encouraged the expansion of the enterprise, granting a charter to a group of men, the Royal Adventurers, who later became the Royal African Company, and invested private funds in the firm, as did the Duke of York.

The company’s charter said the initials ‘DY’ for Duke of York were branded on the left buttock or breast of many of the slaves the company shipped to what were called the ‘sugar islands’ in the Caribbean.

As the slavery abolitionists campaigned against the trade, they were opposed by the Duke of Clarence, George III’s son, later to become William IV.

Charles, head of the Commonwealth, acknowledged the ‘appalling atrocity of slavery’, describing it as something ‘which forever stains our history’, when he attended the ceremony marking Barbados’s historic transition to a republic in 2021.

A year later, he described how he was on a personal journey of discovery and was continuing to ‘deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact’, in a speech at the opening of a Commonwealth summit hosted by Rwanda.

Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley, whose administration ditched Queen Elizabeth II, led a group of Caribbean leaders who launched a new slavery reparations manifesto during a reparations conference held in Ghana in June.

The UK Government’s position on reparations is well established. It acknowledges the trade in enslaved people was abhorrent and its impact is still felt today, but it will not pay financial reparations for historical acts that did not break international laws at the time and is committed to continued dialogue with Commonwealth nations.

Last month a delegation from Jamaica travelled to the UK to file a petition asking the King to refer three questions about transatlantic chattel slavery to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Caribbean island’s highest court of appeal.

Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, asked why her country should not seek slavery reparations when Britain was still paying off debt linked to slave-owner compensation just 11 years ago.

Charles will begin his Caribbean tour by visiting The Bahamas from October 27 to 29, followed by the state visit to Guyana, October 29 to 30 and attend Chogm during his trip to Antigua and Barbuda with the Queen from November 1 to 4.

A palace spokesperson previously highlighted the King’s comments about slavery during other Chogms, adding: ‘And it’s not just about what His Majesty has said, it’s about what he’s done – the personal support for Commonwealth education programmes since the last Chogm, and his support, over many decades, for young people through the King’s Trust.

‘This shows that he has always engaged in ways in which the inequalities of the past can be righted. But as far as reparations and apologies go, that is a matter for the Government.’

A Government spokesperson said: ‘The transatlantic slave trade was abhorrent. We fully recognise its horrific impacts and the ongoing strength of feeling it arouses. The UK’s position is clear: we do not and will not pay reparations.’