Keir Starmer's King Charles and the Ladies will face demands at the Commonwealth Summit later this month for the UK to pay a staggering £200 billion in compensation for its role in the slave trade.
The Group of 15 Caribbean governments has unanimously agreed to present the issue of reparations for slavery at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting on October 21 in Samoa.
This comes after the Prime Minister of Barbados told the United Nations that reparations for slavery and colonialism should be part of a new “global reset”.
Mia Mottley, who is leading the West Indian nations' demands, met the king in London earlier this month for talks ahead of the 56-nation Commonwealth Assembly.
Ms Mottley praised Charles for declaring two years ago that slavery was a “conversation whose time has come”, although Buckingham Palace refused to reveal the content of their latest “private discussions”.
King Charles and Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) will face demands at this month's Commonwealth Summit for Britain to pay a staggering £200 billion in compensation for its role in the slave trade
These demands come amid growing republican sentiment in the Caribbean. Pictured: Protesters outside the British High Commission in Kingston, Jamaica in 2022
Last month, Sir Keir met the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley. Mrs Motley has since met the King in London
The calls come after the Prime Minister's controversial decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius earlier this month raised concerns about the future of British control over other strategic territories including the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy – a descendant of enslaved people – described how his ancestors heard “the twisted lies of imperialism as they were robbed from their homes in chains and turned into slaves.”
He also controversially supported protesters who toppled a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol four years ago and threw it into the harbor. Dozens of other monuments to traffickers and colonialists have been removed in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.
Estimates of likely compensation amounts for Britain's involvement in slavery in 14 countries range from £206 billion to a staggering £19 trillion. The higher figure was given last year by UN judge Patrick Robinson, who called it an “underestimation” of the damage caused by the slave trade.
Robinson expressed surprise that countries involved in slavery thought they could “stick their heads in the sand” on the issue, adding: “When a state commits an unlawful act, it is obligated to pay reparations.”
These demands come amid growing republican sentiment in the Caribbean. Ms Mottley ousted the Queen as head of state of Barbados in 2021, and Jamaica has pledged to abandon the monarchy by next year.
Ms Mottley has described her country as the “homeland of modern racism” thanks to British rule since 1625 and claims the UK's debt to her country is £3.7 trillion.
The then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be seen in Kingston, Jamaica in 2021
Even a small fraction of that amount would be disastrous for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is planning tax rises to plug a £22 billion “black hole” in public finances.
Last night, No 10 said that because the agenda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) had not yet been published, the issue was subject to “speculation”.
But this summer, Dr. Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, declared at the Emancipation of Slavery celebrations: “When we meet in Samoa, Caribbean leaders (will) speak very strongly to the Commonwealth with one voice. There is also one particular country with a new king and a Labor government with a unique mandate.
Last year the Church of England announced it was creating a £100 million fund to pay reparations in recognition that it once profited from the slave trade.
In a speech while he was still shadow foreign secretary, Lammy said he would “take the responsibility of being the first foreign secretary from the slave trade extremely seriously”.
He said his Guyanese parents would not have believed that “their skinny son with NHS prescription glasses who was stopped and searched on the streets of Tottenham” could have made it to the Foreign Office, adding: “They would be surprised because our ancestors knew what it was like ”take away their freedom.
Dr Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said the UK had a “unique mandate” to pay compensation
He also wrote on Twitter: “In 1833, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act. £17 billion in compensation to slave owners for the loss of their property – my ancestors. The slaves received no compensation. Some people just don't know their history or don't want to know the hard truths.
However, research in a new report by leading think tank Policy Exchange has found that the majority of Commonwealth citizens believe the UK “does more good than harm” in the world – the opposite of the British view.
A spokesman for the Commonwealth Secretariat said last night: “Commonwealth leaders have always discussed challenges and aspirations constructively,” adding that it would use its collective power to “discuss matters that are important and relevant to its member states.”
The Foreign Office and Commonwealth Secretariat did not respond to requests for comment.
