UK Slavery reparations not on agenda, says Starmer

Several Caribbean governments are demanding a discussion on reparations at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting being held next week

16th October 2024
Written by: Sinai Fleary
Voice Online 

DOWNING STREET has said slavery reparations is “not on the agenda” ahead of a meeting with Caribbean leaders.

Several Caribbean governments wanted to discuss reparations at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting being held next week in Samoa.

Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, has said the region need a summit with European nations to develop of “reparatory justice model.”

But the idea of discussing reparations has been rejected by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Asked about paying reparations for Britain’s role in slavery, spokesman for the Prime Minister, said on Monday: “Just to be clear, reparations are not on the agenda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

“Technically, the Government’s position on this has not changed. We do not pay reparations.

“The Prime Minister is attending the summit to discuss the shared challenges and opportunities faced by the Commonwealth, including driving growth across our economies.’

Beckles also expressed the UK’s Labour government – with David Lammy as new foreign secretary – would support reparations talks but questions Lammy’s ability to push the issue forward.

“(Lammy) has been a supporter of the (reparations) discourse while he was in opposition,” Beckles said. “The question is whether he would be given a free hand in his government… to take the matter to a higher level.”
The Brattle Report

According to the Brattle Report, Britain owes a staggering £18.6 trillion in reparations – over five times the country’s annual gross domestic product.

The calculation of money owed to the Caribbean and the Americas was made by academics for the prestigious University of the West Indies.

The Brattle Report takes into account loss of liberty, forgone earnings, deprivation and mental pain and anguish during slavery.

And intergenerational trauma, loss of heritage, differences in life expectancy, unemployment and income disparity after emancipation.
‘Unacceptable’

Earlier this month, Barbados Prime Minister criticised reparations packages which have been put forward without any input from the Caribbean or descendants of enslaved people.

Mia Mottley referenced the Church of England’s £100 million reparations fund for its role in the Transatlantic slave trade and said the church failed to have a conversation about what would be appropriate for reparations.

She described the lack of inclusion as “unacceptable.”

In March this year, the Church of England announced that Black-led organisations would be the beneficiaries of a £100 million fund aimed at addressing the church’s role in slavery.

While delivering a keynote speech at the Open Society Foundations United Nations Summit in New York last week, Mottley said: “When the Church of England commissioned the study on Queen Anne’s Bounty and determined that they would give reparations of £100 million it is a step in the right direction.”

But she also added the reparations offer “ignored the agency of us and they never stopped to ask us or have a conversation with us, as to what is appropriate.”