UK seeks to avoid further row as Commonwealth leaders prepare to defy over slavery reparations

British Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said this week he wanted to talk about present-day issues — including climate change when the UK hosts Commonwealth leaders for a summit instead of dwelling on the past.

Commonwealth heads of government are to discuss whether the UK should even have a say in future plans to examine reparatory justice for transatlantic slavery, it has emerged.

However, Downing Street insists that the matter is not on the agenda when leaders of 56 Commonwealth nations meet in Samoa this week.

However, diplomatic sources said there were discussions over understanding to engage in more research and a "proper dialogue" on what could mean exposure for Britain having to pay billions of pounds in compensation.

Bahamas foreign minister Frederick Mitchell told BBC Radio 4's Today program: "Once you broach the subject, it may take a while for people to come around, but they will.

Financial reparations, debt relief, official apology educational programs, building museums, economic support, and public health assistance are also mandated by the language of reparation.

Heads, noting calls for dialog on reparatory justice about the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement… agreed that after all this time and taking into account asking for – A fair viewpoint within a conversation based upon trustworthiness would make us united as one people.

They state that heads of government would convene "an inclusive dialogue addressing these harms actively" and that they commit to implement, prioritize &prioritizee additional research on the impact of trade in enslaved Africans across "the transatlantic" (w)ishes full transparency -queries who decide WHAT decision is THEN revealed!

Diplomats prepared the Text before the summit, which could still be revised after Commonwealth leaders arrived. Despite this, they could block a move for an entirely separate declaration on the topic, which was tabled by other British officials.

Britain was adamant that the communique should not contain whole language about reparatory justice, but it is now likely to include three paragraphs on behalf of all Commonwealth nations.

Caricom, the body that represents Caribbean countries and is designed to advance economic development and political cooperation among its membership of 15 mostly former British West Indian colonies, seems determined — perhaps belatedly, some might say — to globalize claims for reparations further up till now it has limited itself to incidents deriving only from the Atlantic slave trade. Still, Caricom officials have made noises about widening these efforts such that they would include actions emanating out of slavery in Asia-Pacific Japan/China, between which there was vigorous traffic.

The communique, which is in draft form before it has been approved by all members, says: "A clear majority of member states enjoy everyday historical experiences about this abhorrent and unforgettable slave trade, chattel enslavement or the disempowerment including appalling dispossession suffered upon Indigenous peoples.

It is also a direct reference to the practice of "blackbirding", which occurred across many colonies in the region, where Pacific islanders were either enslaved or simply used as cheap labour.

The diplomatic expectation is that reparation will be a prominent item on the agenda of the next Commonwealth summit to be held in 2017, possibly in Caribbean Antigua and Barbuda.

Ahead of this year's summit, the UK has faced increasing calls from across the Commonwealth for an apology and financial reparations worth tens of trillions in worldwide pounds over its historical behavior as a slaver.

One report by the University of West Indies — with its conclusions endorsed by Patrick Robinson, a judge who sits on the International Court of Justice – last year calculated that £18tn in reparations is owed to 14 Caribbean countries for Britain's role in slavery.

Before the Commonwealth meeting, King Charles met people working on reforestation in Samoa and was shown a ceremony where he was given an honorary chieftaincy.

Samoa Queen Camilla in women's forum by Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland of Asthal

During a visit by Foreign Office minister Baroness Chapman to the Bahamas, Prime Minister Philip Davis told her last weekend that demands for reparations had not been silenced.

Frederick Mitchell, the foreign minister of Bahamas, told BBC Radio 4's Today program: "The word is to apologize, that's the word.

Talking about the Commonwealth get-together, he said: "That is a cosmetic thing - it can be done in one line… [a] single sentence.

Asked how much he thought the reparations should add, Mr Mitchell said this was more than a question of money. The tab is for most ReadEditor's Pickcheduling EIFC poll scrims Music. Designer TabFirstly it's about 'respect and honoring that we have done wrong in history' (Greg Man)TAB SPORTS FIRST TAB THIRD U8 FirstRecently viewed account profile sign outBotica recalls winning startSerial killing coach slams AussieOpen week 1NRLTab on top. Selects Box Office videoUnhinged trailerRe-open block-song UTB no season-more shielding shield-Horn schedule-advice admin-lock WatchDisney+QLD Newsnresponse-CPCince-FUSK Gallerywhy-tellspin-Live-stream-Shaahir Photo_Center_Right photo-aboutdevPhoto sale redis-Left_tri-redPicture Sample-right TLC […].

He said member countries "are asking just to have the discussion, but it almost appears there is a resistance for even having that discussion."

The prime minister was "right" to look "to the future," says Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who added that there have been calls for slavery reparations in the UK, which he has heard.

A UK government spokesperson would not be drawn to comment on the leak to the BBC but responded: "Reparations are not part of the agenda for Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings. The government remains firmly in the view that we should not pay reparations.

"Rather, we are very much focused on using the summit at [the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting] to talk about those shared opportunities we could unlock across the New Zealand-Ireland relationship – more economic growth.

While this is technically true, it angered some Caribbean ministers who felt the matter would definitely be raised at the summit level, and there was no point in pretending otherwise.

BBC political editor Chris Mason said the language from the UK government was "irritating even further." Some who might not have anticipated that all its talk would change their outlook and suddenly start dishing it out had added a great deal.

Sir Keir Starmer touched down in Samoa on Wednesday evening UK time... the first-ever sitting prime minister to visit a Pacific island nation.

En route, he told reporters that Commonwealth leaders had said they hoped to discuss contemporary challenges with him — not previous justices of the peace.

He said: "What they are most interested in is, can we help them work with, for example, international financial institutions on the sorts of packages they need right now around the kind of really what's up against it.

Because that's what it will distract from - instead of the purposes of interminably long discussions about reparations in history.

Now nodding vigorously a third time as Cuzner continued his rapid northern rhetorical rhythms, "Of course, slavery is abhorrent to everybody," he said of the trade and practice. But I would much rather get my hands dirty with working out those future-facing challenges and problems dealing with what we have going forward instead of dwelling on the past.

The Prince of Wales landed in Samoa on Wednesday for a four-day visit and is scheduled to open the summit.

During a visit to Kenya last year, the King said he was left with the 'deepest of regrets' by those wrongs committed during colonial times but did not go so far as to offer an apology, something which would have needed ministerial assent.

Some countries beyond the Caribbean do not entirely disagree with Britain and would like this week's summit to be more oriented towards current problems - for instance, climate change, which spells terrible news for many Commonwealth members as just over half are small island states.

However, Caribbean countries appear willing to continue making the issue a bugbear.

Shirley Botchwey of Ghana has joined Joshua Setipa of Lesotho and Mamadou Tangara in Gambia as candidates for this weekend's election to become the next Commonwealth secretary general, all of whom state they are backing reparatory justice.