UNITED KINGDOM – U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says his government will consider apologizing for the first time for its role in the trans-atlantic slave trade, but has rejected calls for the country to pay reparations.
Writing in the Guardian on Saturday, Burnham said Britain needed to acknowledge its “complicated history” in order to protect the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent nations that grew out of the British Empire.
He said his government is offering to begin a “structured dialogue” with those affected by slavery and will listen to calls for a formal apology by the British state, which benefited hugely from the slave trade before it was outlawed in 1833 – the British empire was arguably founded on it.
