Burnham open to calls for slavery apology, but rules out financial reparations

Apology remains possible

Writing for the Guardian, Burnham said Britain had to face its past. He also argued that people in Britain today should not be liable for historical crimes in which they had no personal involvement.

Financial payments rejected

Burnham ruled out considering financial reparations, saying they were not the right answer. A government source told the BBC that an apology was morally the right thing to do.

Mia Mottley, Barbados’s prime minister, has called for reparations and welcomed Burnham’s statement. She said she would engage in good faith while continuing to seek reparatory justice.

Calls for formal action

Mottley said the British government should stop obfuscating and issue a full, formal apology. She described an apology as a significant symbolic first step towards reparatory justice. Britain played a key role in ending the trade, with Parliament passing a law to abolish slavery in 1833. The UK finished paying the debt it took on to cover the payments in 2015.