KING CHARLES RULES OUT SLAVERY APOLOGY ON CARIBBEAN TOUR

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to a formal apology for Britain's role in the slave trade, as King Charles tours the Caribbean. Buckingham Palace said the King would not apologise, repeating past statements of sorrow. A palace spokesman said the King would confront the past with "unflinching honesty" and "sincere sorrow". On the first day of his tour of The Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, the King said it was "only right" to acknowledge the suffering of the past. Campaigners in the region said they were angered he again stopped short of an apology.

Burnham said he wanted to offer affected nations a "structured dialogue" but ruled out financial pay-outs. Writing in The Guardian, he expressed "sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions." He said a formal apology "will form an important part" of that process, adding: "I am open to them." Burnham is due to fly out to join the King at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday. Government policy has until now been to recognise slavery's impact without a formal apology.

The summit has brought renewed calls from Commonwealth states for the UK to apologise and pay reparations. A UN judge claimed in 2023 the UK likely owes over £18 trillion for its historical role in slavery. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said British taxpayers should not be "held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born." Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Britain had "already paid the price," pointing to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and costs he said "wasn't settled until 2015."