Britain “does not pay reparations”, a minister has said amid calls from Commonwealth leaders for talks in light of the UK’s historical involvement in the slave trade.
Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds was pressed by MPs about the Government’s stance after the UK failed to keep language on reparations out of a joint statement signed by attending nations at a major Commonwealth summit.
The final communique signed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Samoa acknowledged calls for a discussion on the matter and said they “agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity”.
Speaking in the House of Commons, shadow Foreign Office minister Dame Harriett Baldwin said of the communique: “It implies the UK’s openness to reparatory justice in relation to the abhorrent slave trade.
“It seems that this issue is not as off-limits as the Prime Minister had previously stated.
“So what is the Government’s actual red line on reparations given the Foreign Secretary’s (David Lammy) well-known past views on the topic, or is this another example of saying one thing in opposition but another in government?”
Ms Dodds said the UK Government prioritised economic development and action on the climate and nature “crisis”.
She also said: “Just to be absolutely crystal clear on this, of course, everyone in this House I’m sure would agree that the slave trade was abhorrent and we condemn it, just as previous Labour governments have done.
“And as the Prime Minister made clear in Samoa, it’s important that we start from there.
“But it’s also important that we’re just as clear that there’s been no change in our policy on reparations. The UK does not pay reparations and I really could not say that more emphatically.”
Conservative MP Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) said the discussion on reparations makes “a nonsense of the concept of individual responsibility”.
He told MPs: “When one group of people have done something terrible to another group of people, it is understandable that resentment about that can pass down to the next generation and possibly the generation after that.
“But does the minister agree with me that to say that that process can continue over two centuries, and thus require guilt to be expiated in the form of reparations, is to make a nonsense of the concept of individual responsibility?”
Ms Dodds said it is the Government’s “view that we have to focus on the future”, adding: “That’s the approach that we took at the Chogm meeting.”
Conservative former minister Dr Andrew Murrison asked if the minister would “accept that heads of government who are watching this process are perfectly entitled reasonably to deduce that the UK is now on a journey that will lead to reparations”.
He continued: “Will she further accept that there is a clear difference between providing compensation to people who have been harmed by the state, from tainted blood victims to subpostmasters, but that is entirely different to reparations paid in respect of events that happened 200 years ago?”
Ms Dodds replied: “I do not believe heads of government are in any doubt about the new UK Government’s approach to these questions.”
She added that “none” of the UK Government discussions at Chogm had been about money.
