Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has defended Andy Burnham’s call for a structured dialogue with Commonwealth countries on a formal UK apology for slavery, while criticising Tony Blair’s earlier response as a “sorry not sorry” statement.
Speaking to the BBC’s Newscast podcast, Miliband said people had been “bruised” by the sense that the issue was being swept under the carpet. He said Burnham’s approach offered an opportunity to work with Commonwealth partners to move forward.
Blair said in 2006 that the slave trade was “profoundly shameful” and expressed “deep sorrow that it ever happened”, but did not formally apologise. Miliband said the statement expressed sorrow before being “walked back by No 10”.
Burnham has proposed a “structured dialogue” on the wording of an apology. Asked whether a formal apology could be reached by the time the UK hosts the G20 leaders’ summit in Manchester next November, Miliband said: “Broadly speaking, yes.”
He stressed, however, that the UK would not offer reparations. Miliband said the government had told its partners it was willing to discuss an apology but would not shift its position on reparations, which he described as impractical and unfeasible.
Burnham made his remarks at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda. A readout of his meeting with Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister, Gaston Browne, said he described the Commonwealth as “more important today than ever before” amid volatile times.
Sources: The Guardian Politics.