A UK apology over the country's historic role in the slave trade will not lead to financial reparations, minister Kemi Badenoch has said. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Badenoch repeated what she wrote on X yesterday, dismissing the discussion as “naval gazing”. She also claimed that “We have apologised. Tony Blair apologised twice.” She is likely 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 “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 Kuenssberg 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 Kuenssberg 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.”