Mr Browne was dismissive of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s warning that an apology would “wedge a door open” for reparations claims. “I think she’s misguided and no wonder she’s the leader of the opposition and not the Prime Minister,” he said.
He also openly declared his desire to sever Antigua and Barbuda’s ties to the Crown. “I can say to you, I am a republican,” Mr Browne stated, though he acknowledged that replacing the monarch as head of state would require a two-thirds majority vote and ultimately rest with the people.
During a church service at St John’s Pentecostal House of Restoration on Sunday, held to mark Antigua and Barbuda’s Independence Day, the King and Queen heard a pointed message about the obligations of genuine partnership within the Commonwealth.
Ernest Flemming, Bishop of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba, delivered a sermon that went beyond diplomatic pleasantries. “True partnership requires mutual respect, it requires listening, it requires fairness,” he said, adding that the voices of small states, young people, women, disabled people, and indigenous communities must be “not merely heard ceremonially but included meaningfully in decision-making.”