Miliband: Britain's apology for the slave trade will cost taxpayers nothing

London prepares for a possible apology for the slave trade

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the government's willingness to formally apologise for the country's role in the transatlantic slave trade will not entail additional costs for British taxpayers. He made the remarks on the BBC's Newscast podcast, which was recording a report from Antigua. At the same time, according to the BBC, the prime minister previously said that Britain will not pay reparations to the affected countries, but declined to clarify whether the new approach might require budget funds.

Criticism of the previous approach and the CHOGM summit in Samoa

Miliband criticised previous British governments for an approach he described as 'sweeping under the carpet', citing the words of former prime minister Tony Blair from almost twenty years ago. In 2007, Blair described Britain's involvement in the slave trade as a matter of 'deep sorrow and regret', but in Miliband's view this was 'an apology that was not an apology': first an expression of sorrow, then an apology, after which Downing Street walked the statement back. Miliband added that this episode is still remembered — including in a recent conversation between Andy Burnham and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. He also said that on his second day as a minister he was told that the previous Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa two years ago had gone badly and ended, in his words, in a 'verbal spat' precisely over the issue of the slave trade. In his assessment, the issue has 'hung over' the Commonwealth for about 20 years and continues to intensify.

What is known about the government's plans

Burnham, the BBC notes, said the government is open to a formal apology for the slave trade. Ministers are beginning a so-called 'structured dialogue' with the affected countries; the apology is expected to come around the time the prime minister hosts the G20 summit in Manchester in November 2027. Miliband said he had requested a historical briefing on Britain's involvement in the slave trade: according to him, over a couple of centuries 'with the involvement of the British state' more than three million people were transported, hundreds of thousands of whom died en route. He named the goal of the process not only a possible apology but also freeing up the Commonwealth agenda for other topics. Earlier, the BBC reported, the King called the slave trade 'a shameful chapter' in an address to the Commonwealth, while Buckingham Palace stressed that the King's role is not connected with policy-making; there were also reports of the prime minister's plans for a 'debt reset' for Commonwealth countries against the backdrop of the start of talks on an apology.