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Keir Starmer has flown into an explosive row over reparations for the transatlantic slave trade at a summit in Samoa.
Commonwealth leaders are preparing to defy the prime minister and agree plans to examine how there can be ‘reparative justice’ over the issue.
The move comes despite Sir Keir’s call for the group to look to the future at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (Chogm), which begins in the pacific nation on Friday. The prime minister was expected to come under direct fire over slavery at the event, after the prime minister of the Bahamas Philip Davis said he was seeking a “frank talk” with Sir Keir about reparations.
Diplomatic sources said officials are already negotiating an agreement to conduct further research and begin a “meaningful conversation”, which could leave the UK owing billions of pounds in reparations.
The text of the draft summit communique, seen by the BBC, reads: “Heads, noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement… agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.”
It says the heads of government would play “an active role in bringing about such inclusive conversations addressing these harms”.
They also agreed to “prioritise and facilitate further and additional research on the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel slavery that encourages and supports the conversations and informs a way forward”.
While the text could be altered once the summit begins, it has been drafted by diplomats before the arrival of Commonwealth leaders.
Fred Mitchell, foreign affairs minister of the Bahamas, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it is “only a matter of time” before Sir Keir changes his position on reparations.
He said there is “no figure in mind” when it comes to reparations and “that’s why you have to have the discussion”.
Asked about Sir Keir’s position on the matter, Mr Mitchell added: “It’s only a matter of time before his position changes, I am confident of it.”
The prime minister of the Bahamas Philip Davis told Politico he was seeking a “frank talk” with Sir Keir about reparations at the summit. “It’s not just about an apology. It’s not about money. It’s about an appreciation and understanding of what our ancestors went through,” he said.
Referencing the communique circulated at Chogm, he said: “A declaration on reparatory justice seems innocuous enough to us, because really what should happen is there should be an apology and a commitment to reparations. But the way the paragraphs are structured is at the moment is to simply call for this discussion to take place on reparatory justice - and not even that concession can be made.”
The UK was trying to avoid any reference to reparatory justice in the communique, but if the text remains as it stands, Sir Keir will have to accept the inclusion of three paragraphs detailing the Commonwealth’s position.
On his way to the Summit, the prime minister doubled down on the UK’s position, insisting calls for reparations for slavery were not on his agenda.
“On the question of which way we’re facing I think we should be facing forward,” he told reporters.
“I’ve talked to a lot of our Commonwealth colleagues in the Commonwealth family and they’re facing real challenges on things like climate in the here and now.”
The draft communique says a majority of member states “share common historical experiences in relation to this abhorrent trade, chattel enslavement, the debilitation and dispossession of indigenous people”.
The prime minister is under growing pressure to open up a conversation about reparatory justice for Britain’s role in the slave trade, from both the Commonwealth and also from within his own party.
Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who is currently suspended from the party after he voted against the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap, told The Independent: “The argument Keir Starmer is putting forward is that the Commonwealth should focus on the present and future fails to understand that addressing the past is not a distraction but is essential to dealing with the future.
“To have a Labour Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary simply repeating the policy of the Conservatives virtually word for word is extremely disappointing.”
On Tuesday, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy warned the “Commonwealth will crumble” if the government does not reopen talks.
She said “an apology is absolutely free”, dismissing attempts to focus on the “here and now” rather than unpick wrongs of the past.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy warned: “We’re never going to be able to do that, or the nations that are most impacted are never going to be able to do that unless they are given a fighting chance.
“They continue to suffer the economic impact of enslavement and colonialism, and we have a responsibility for that, whether or not we were directly involved.”
Labour MPs Clive Lewis, Nadia Whittome, Marsha de Cordova and former minister Dawn Butler told The Guardian they too want Sir Keir to change tack.
Recently resurfaced footage showed foreign secretary David Lammy, who will join Sir Keir in Samoa, supporting the case for reparations while he was a backbench Labour MP in the wake of the Windrush scandal.
In 2018, in reference to the scandal, he tweeted: “As Caribbean people enslaved, colonised and invited to Britain as citizens we remember our history. We don’t just want an apology, we want reparations and compensation.”
The prime minister, who arrived in Samoa on Thursday overnight, is set to face a showdown next year with a delegation of Caribbean nations over the issue.
The 15 member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), who have previously set out formal demands for reparations in a 10-point plan, are planning a delegation to the UK in 2025 with an updated list of demands.
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