Idris Elba takes major swipe at Andy Burnham in candid chat with King Charles

“How are you?” the actor and knife crime campaigner asked, shaking the King’s hand.

Charles responded: “What are you doing here?” Sir Idris laughed and replied: “I get around,” giving the King an affectionate pat on the arm.

He then added: “How are you doing, though? Are you having a good time? Sorry about the Prime Minister.”

Andy Burnham, who is in Antigua for the Commonwealth summit, has faced criticism from opponents who accuse him of pressuring the King by declaring his willingness to hear calls for a formal apology over the transatlantic slave trade.

The Prime Minister has, however, firmly excluded financial reparations from consideration.

Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne used Sunday to restate his personal desire for the Caribbean nation to abandon the British monarchy and become a republic.

Mr Browne also issued a stark warning, declaring that without compensation for slavery, such “atrocities” could be repeated.

The competing pressures from both leaders have created a fraught political backdrop for the King’s visit, just hours before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is set to begin on Tuesday.

During their visit to the museum at Antigua’s Government House, a building once regarded as a symbol of British colonial oppression but now viewed as a testament to the island’s resilience, Charles and Camilla examined artefacts documenting the horrors of slavery.

The King studied a display case containing ceramic medallions created to support the abolitionist cause, iron shackles, and a conch shell that enslaved people had used both to summon workers and to call secret gatherings.

Infamous diagrams showing enslaved people packed into the holds of slave ships were also among the items presented to the royal couple.

On their way out, Charles and Camilla passed former slave quarters thought to be the oldest surviving examples anywhere in the eastern Caribbean.

The slavery question and demands for reparations are expected to dominate the Commonwealth summit, which the King will formally open with a keynote address in the Antiguan capital on Tuesday.

Charles is anticipated to confront the legacy of the slave trade with what has been described as “unflinching honesty” and “sincere sorrow.”

Cuthbert Forbes, senior assistant to Lady Williams, wife of Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams, guided Their Majesties through three paintings depicting enslaved people who attempted to flee before being captured.

Mr Forbes offered a telling perspective on the significance of the visit. “It’s not about confronting them with slavery,” he said of the King and Queen’s tour.

“Telling that story for us as black Caribbean people, this story of how far we have come and battles we have fought.”