U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said his government is open to the idea of formally apologising for Britain’s historical role in the slave trade, although he ruled out financial reparations.
Mr. Burnham set out his position in an opinion piece in The Guardian on Friday (October 30, 2026), ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda, next week. There have, for long, been calls for Britain to apologise and offer reparations for slavery and its colonial past, including in India.
Some three million Africans were transported as slaves to work on plantations in Britian’s colonies in the Americas. Britain began abolishing the slave trade in its empire in 1807. Slavery was abolished in 1833 though not all slaves were freed until 1838. Britain “compensated” slave owners to a total sum of GBP 20 million or 40% of the government’s annual budget in 1833.
“Manchester’s cotton industry was built on the labour of enslaved people,” wrote Mr. Burnham, the former Mayor of Manchester.
Mr. Burnham acknowledged the calls from affected countries for a dialogue on slavery.
“By sticking our heads in the sand, we have damaged the ability of the Commonwealth to function,” he said, adding that it was necessary to have conversations on slavery to protect the future of the Commonwealth.
Mr. Burnham said the U.K. was “offering structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave 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,” he added.
Calls for Britain to make amends for its past have grown louder in recent days as Britain’s King Charles III tours the Caribbean on his way to the CHOGM. The King is the titular head of the Commonwealth.
In the Bahamas this week, Charles acknowledged the “great suffering and injustices of the past”, stopping short of an apology.
Bucking Palace has said that it was up to the U.K. government to decide whether or not to apologise.
Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley welcomed Mr. Burnham’s statement, even as she acknowledged that “views differ” on reparations. The British Monarch was the titular Head of State of Barbados until 2021, when the country became a republic. It is one of several countries asking Britain to go beyond an apology and make financial reparations for slavery.
Once slavery was abolished, a system of indentured labour grew in the colonies between 1838 and 1917. Some two million men , women and children from India were shipped across the British Empire, from the Caribbean to South Africa, to work on plantations. Many of these workers were exploited and misled on the conditions of employment, some were kidnapped and trafficked. Most of the labourers could not afford to return to India.
Mr. Burnham pushed back against the notion of financial reparations for victims of slavery saying that the British people could not be held responsible for historical wrongs , “however heinous”, that happened in a different age and under different legal circumstances, in which they did not play any part.
Instead, Mr. Burnham announced that former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown would head a debt restructuring initiative for some of the poorest countries in the Commonwealth. The U.K. would also support their energy transition in the face of the climate crisis, the Prime Minister said.
Cities like Manchester continued to grow after the abolition of slavery as the British empire consolidated its grip on the markets of its colonies, notably India, which became a supplier of raw cotton to the mills of Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and other areas. Simultaneously, India effectively became a captive market for finished British textiles.
Also read:Jallianwala Bagh massacre: The unending wait for an apology from Britain
Author and Lok Sabha MP, Shashi Tharoor, who has written on British colonialism in India, has been one of those calling for an “atonement” by the U.K. for its past. Mr. Tharoor has previously suggested that a symbolic annual sum of GBP 1 per year be paid to India , for 200 years, as part of this.
“I have long argued that whatever reparations are offered by Britain, no credible figure is payable and no payable figure is credible. But moral atonement for the ravages of colonialism is indispensable,” Mr. Tharoor told The Hindu on Saturday (October 31, 2026), when asked for a reaction to the Burnham piece and debate around reparations.
Mr. Tharoor welcomed Mr. Burnham’s willingness to formally apologise for slavery but criticised the Prime Minister’s omission of a larger apology for colonialism.
“ But the omission of colonialism from his apology is inexplicable and inexcusable. It remains deeply shameful that Britain has never said a simple “sorry” for the loot, pillage, death and destruction perpetrated during the colonial era on millions of innocent victims of British imperialism,” Mr. Tharoor told The Hindu.
Published – October 31, 2026 06:00 pm IST
