Starmer rules out slavery reparations ahead of Commonwealth summit
Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out paying reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade in the run-up to a major Commonwealth summit.
Downing Street insisted the issue was “not on the agenda” for the meeting of nations in Samoa later this month.
Asked what the Prime Minister’s view on paying reparations is, his official spokesman said on Monday: “We do not pay reparations.”
Transatlantic slavery
All three candidates vying to become the next secretary-general of the 56-nation Commonwealth headed by the King have supported reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonialism.
The leadership vote between Shirley Botchwey of Ghana, Joshua Setipa of Lesotho and Mamadou Tangara of Gambia will take place at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) from October 21.
Resistance
Number 10’s resistance to reparations is in line with the position of the former Tory government, which repeatedly rejected calls for payouts.
In recently resurfaced footage, Foreign Secretary David Lammy supported the case for measures to compensate for Britain’s role in the slave trade while he was a backbench Labour MP in the wake of the Windrush scandal.
“I’m afraid as Caribbean people we are not going to forget our history – we don’t just want to hear an apology, we want reparation,” Mr Lammy can be heard saying in the clip from 2018.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle defended his Cabinet colleague against questions about the apparent inconsistency of his remarks, telling LBC: “That was David Lammy long before he became Foreign Secretary. Now he speaks on behalf of the Labour Government and this is a new Labour Government.
“We are focused on the future and when we move forward as a country we are thinking globally as well.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
‘Asked what the Prime Minister’s view on paying reparations is, his official spokesman said on Monday: “We do not pay reparations.”’ Not a surprising response, given that much of the developed world appears to be experiencing a surge in nativist nationalist sentiment. Britain being no exception, as the Brexit referendum and the rise of Reform UK suggests. When, this morning in ‘The Independent on line’, I came across the headline ‘Starmer vows bonfire of red tape to get Britain building ahead of investment summit’ it struck me that you could go back to 2010 and imagine an identical headline reporting… Read more »
What is the betting schedule for the U-turn.
How convenient that comments made in the not too distant pass by Lammy are actually not considered unacceptable as he now speaks for the government!!! How quick that same government screams from the rooftops about any comments by Tories in the past that would not be acceptable today. Hypocrisy is very much alive and flourishing with Labour.
I’m not surprised, he is one of life’s takers with both hands…to expect our man in the white suit Mr Lammy to make a stand sadly is a forlorn hope…
Superman has been found bound and gagged in a phone box on Westminster Bridge, a spineless creature was seen slithering into Downing St…