No 10 clarifies stance ahead of Commonwealth summit despite David Lammy’s previous calls for payouts in wake of 2018 Windrush scandal
Downing Street has ruled out paying slavery reparations to Caribbean countries ahead of a major Commonwealth summit.
The Caribbean Community’s 14 member states had been expected to push Sir Keir Starmer on the issue at next week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Samoa.
But the Prime Minister’s official spokesman confirmed on Monday that there would be no cash from the Government for countries wanting compensation relating to Britain’s colonial past.
Asked about calls from countries including Barbados, the spokesman said: “Just to be clear, reparations are not on the agenda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
“Secondly, the Government’s position has not changed. We do not pay reparations.”
It is the first time Downing Street has clarified its stance on the issue having stayed silent over the weekend. The Foreign Office also previously declined to take a view.
The position is consistent with that of Rishi Sunak’s government, which repeatedly rejected the case for slavery reparations.
Academics and lawyers have claimed the overall bill owed by Britain for its part in the slave trade could be worth anything between £206 billion and £19 trillion.
Sir Hilary Beckles, the chairman of the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission, said ahead of the Chogm summit that David Lammy should have a “free hand” to decide payouts.
Mr Lammy, now the Foreign Secretary, called for repar ations as a backbench Labour MP in the wake of the Windrush scandal in 2018.
Sir Hilary told Reuters: “It is our intention to persist with this strategy of calling for a summit to work through what a reparatory justice model ought to look like in the case of the Caribbean.
“He [Mr Lammy] has been a supporter of the discourse while he was in opposition. The question is whether he would be given a free hand in his Government to take the matter to a higher level.”
Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, has also called for “difficult” conversations over how the debt should be repaid and is expected to raise the issue at the Chogm talks.
Ms Mottley said in the past that slave-owning nations owed her country £3.9 trillion.
Downing Street’s clarification came after Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, said the Government would be “sensitive” in how it responded to demands from Caribbean countries.
Mr Kyle told Nick Ferrari of LBC: “These are very, very tricky diplomatic challenges that we have as a country because of our legacy. We are focused on the future.”
The minister was then shown a video of his now-Cabinet colleague demanding “reparation” for Britons of Caribbean origin at a Windrush rally in 2018.
“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 could be heard saying.
When pressed on the comments, Mr Kyle said: “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.
“And we want to make sure that our global partners and particularly those that we have historic and cultural ties to, that we make sure that those countries benefit from the success that Britain has.”
Mr Kyle added: “Those tricky diplomatic issues will be dealt with all of the tact and delicacy that is needed from the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary going forward.
“We will deal with these issues in a very sensitive way with them as we move forward as a country.”
Mr Kyle said that although the world should be able to benefit from the success of a “resurgent Britain”, this had to be done “in a way that’s fit for the 2020s”.
As well as the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, the King and Queen will also be in attendance at Chogm in Samoa next week.
