Kemi Badenoch fumes at Andy Burnham’s ‘navel-gazing’ after PM opens door to slavery apology

Mr Burnham, due to attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) in the Caribbean next week, expressed his personal “sorrow and regret” for the suffering caused by the historic trade.

“Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process, and I am open to them,” Mr Burnham said.

Mrs Badenoch rejected the Prime Minister’s approach, reprimanding him for failing in his role as “ Britain’s greatest defender”.

“Tony Blair already expressed Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade nearly twenty years ago. There is no need to do so again,” she wrote on X.

“This is all another navel-gazing distraction,” the Tory leader slammed, insisting that the “Commonwealth should be looking forward, not endlessly backwards”.

“That means economic partnerships to make us all richer and deeper military and security cooperation against common threats.

“If every Commonwealth summit becomes an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash, then we need to start asking if it is worth the effort,” she said.

Writing about his thoughts on slavery, Mr Burnham said he backed a renewed conversation on the UK’s role in the slave trade because “the Britain I believe in is confident, decent and brave”.

“We led the world in abolishing slavery – and we can show leadership again today.”

“So we are offering a structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade,” The Prime Minister wrote in the Guardian.

Caribbean nations have put pressure on Britain to apologise for its role in the slave trade as King Charles tours the region.

Mrs Badenoch also ruled out reparations, in cash or debt relief, insisting that Britain “has been down this track before”.

“Twenty-five years ago, Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History argued that cancelling the debts of poorer countries would give them a fresh start.

“More than $100 billion of debt was eventually written off, but many of those countries have since built up even bigger debts.

“Labour are already spending too much on Britain’s welfare state; now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare.

“There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born.

“I have even less patience for political elites in Commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous, now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain,” she slammed.

Writing about his thoughts on slavery, Mr Burnham said he backed a renewed conversation on the UK’s role in the trade because “the Britain I believe in is confident, decent and brave”.

“We led the world in abolishing slavery – and we can show leadership again today.”

“So we are offering a structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade,” The Prime Minister wrote in the Guardian.

However, the Prime Minister also rejected calls for reparations, saying that today’s Britons could not be “held liable for historical wrongs”.