What Burnham offered in his op-ed

Writing in The Guardian days before attending a Commonwealth leaders summit in the Caribbean, and as King Charles III tours the region, the prime minister argued that Britain needs to face up to the past. He said he wanted to express his sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions, and to recognise how the slave trade still shapes the world today.

Burnham described the transatlantic slave trade as a "brutal and barbaric violation" of enslaved people's rights and offered a structured dialogue with those affected. Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process, he wrote, adding that he is open to them. But he drew a clear line on liability.

Why he rejects financial reparations

While open on the apology, Burnham insisted reparations were not "the right answer". Instead, he announced plans to launch a new debt restructuring drive for the poorest Commonwealth countries, led by former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.

The plan would work as follows:

• •The UK would work with global partners to help the poorest Commonwealth countries repay their debts.
• •Repayment would run over a longer time period and with better rates.

Divided voices at home

The position drew criticism from campaigners. Denis O'Brien, founder of The Repair Campaign, said London must stop obfuscating and give a full and formal apology now, calling it a significant symbolic first step towards reparatory justice.

On the other side, UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on Saturday there was no need to revisit the question of formally saying sorry, while reiterating her firm opposition to reparations. She urged the Commonwealth to look forward and not endlessly backwards, and wrote on X that "Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated", adding that the whole history should be acknowledged honestly.

The backdrop: a summit and a royal tour

The comments land days before the Commonwealth summit, which runs from Sunday to Wednesday in St John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, and which Burnham is set to attend. The 56-member Commonwealth, which Charles, 77, helms, is mainly composed of British ex-colonies.

The King is on a nine-day visit to three Caribbean countries, which will include an address to the summit. In the Bahamas on Tuesday, he acknowledged "the great suffering of the past" during the first leg of his visit, and in Guyana on Friday he visited an execution site of local people during British colonial rule, pausing to reflect in a gesture seen as showing awareness of past injustice.

Britain has never formally apologised for slavery or agreed to pay reparations, though it profited for centuries from colonialism and the slave trade and argues it also led the way in abolition: in 1833, the UK parliament passed a law to abolish slavery in most of the British Empire. Burnham has pledged difficult conversations to safeguard the Commonwealth for the future.