British lawmakers accuse Prime Minister Starmer of silencing countries demanding reparations

LONDON:

Some British Labor lawmakers on Sunday accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of a “colonial mindset” and an attempt to silence countries pushing to discuss reparations for transatlantic slavery at this month’s Commonwealth summit in Samoa.

Britain has so far rejected calls for reparations, but some campaigners hoped Starmer’s new Labor government would be more open to it.

However, ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Samoa, where Caribbean and African countries wanted to discuss the topic, Starmer said the issue was not on the agenda and that he wanted to “look forward” rather than “for a very long time”. endless discussions about reparations for the past.”

“(It’s) very offensive to tell people of African descent to forget and move on,” Labor MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy told a cross-party conference on reparations in London.

Following the summit in Samoa, the leaders of the club of 56 countries, led by the British King Charles, agreed to include in their final communiqué that the time had come to discuss the issue of reparations. “I am very proud that these countries refused to be silenced,” Ribeiro-Addy said.

Another Labor MP, Clive Lewis, said it was surprising that Starmer thought he could take “colonial thinking” into the summit and “dictate what can and cannot be discussed”.

At a press conference in Samoa on Saturday, Starmer said slavery was “disgusting” and that discussions agreed in the communiqué would not be about “money”.

Supporters of reparations say the legacy of slavery has led to persistent racial inequality, while opponents say countries should not be held accountable for historical wrongs.

Lawmakers said reparations could include formal apologies, debt forgiveness, return of artifacts or changes to school curriculum, not just financial payments.

Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP, said the Labor Party had previously planned to set up a national reparations commission but Starmer “seems to have forgotten about it”. “Reparations are not a matter of the past, but a matter of the here and now,” she said.