Keir Starmer has insisted he wants to “look forward” rather than have “very long endless discussions about reparations on the past” in his first comments on the issue before the Commonwealth summit.
The prime minister is under pressure to discuss reparatory justice with Commonwealth countries, most of which are former UK colonies, in Samoa this week.
Speaking to reporters travelling with him for the summit, Starmer said Commonwealth countries were “facing real challenges on things like climate in the here and now”.
“That’s where I’m going to put my focus, rather than what will end up being very, very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past,” he said. “This is about stance, really, looking forward rather than looking backwards.
“Slavery is abhorrent … there’s no question about that. But I think from my point of view and taking the approach I’ve just taken, I’d rather roll up my sleeves and work with them on the current future-facing challenges than spend a lot of time on the past.”
Caricom, a group of 15 Caribbean countries, has indicated it will push Starmer and the foreign secretary, David Lammy, on the issue at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Samoa.
In 2018 Lammy, then a backbench Labour MP, called for reparations to be paid to Caribbean nations. But in government Labour has ruled out apologising over Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery.
Starmer said the focus of the summit should be “growth and trade” between Commonwealth countries.
The government also announced a new UK trade centre of expertise based in the Foreign Office, which will advise developing countries on competing in global markets and connect them with UK businesses.
The trade centre is intended to boost economic ties with the Commonwealth. Six members – Bangladesh, Guyana, India, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda – are projected to be among the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world by 2027. The combined GDP of the Commonwealth is expected to exceed $19.5tn in the next three years.
Starmer’s comments on reparations prompted criticism from historians and campaigners who said they showed a lack of leadership and a fundamental misunderstanding about what leaders in the global south had been calling for.
Eric Phillips, the chair of the Guyana Reparations Committee, said: “I just don’t understand the relevance of the Commonwealth if PM Starmer takes this cruel approach.”
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He argued it had been slavery that underpinned, nurtured and rewarded “the rampant capitalism that has today created the climate change crisis”, adding: “Britain … wants to trade with Commonwealth countries now that Brexit has hurt its economy. The trading principles are purely capitalistic and against the interest of former colonies. No reparations, no trade should be the new motto of countries that seek reparations.”
Liliane Umubyeyi, the director of African Futures Lab, said: “Heads of states like the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, have been saying that the demands for reparations don’t concern only what happened in the past, they concern contemporary conditions of inequality.”
Prof Verene A Shepherd, of the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination and director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, described Starmer’s remarks as dismissive.
She said they “will not make the campaign go away, and I hope that those who continue to be affected by the legacies of British colonialism will tell him so when they see him at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting”.
The veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott said: “It is disappointing that the PM has been so dismissive of the opportunity to debate reparations … the descendants of slaves live with the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade in the here and now.”