Commonwealth chief says King Charles should ‘apologise for slavery’

Asked whether the royal should apologise, the Commonwealth chief told Sky News: “That’s what the countries have asked for… It wouldn’t hurt to have that. Not at all.”

King Charles visit the Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda. It is reported that he will “not shy away” from discussing the historical slave trade on the trip, but will stop short of apologising for Britain’s role in it.

He will make speeches in all three countries, given he is head of the Commonwealth. Finally, he will have a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting where the issue of reparations is expected to be debated.

Caribbean campaigners have called for slavery reparations to be on the upcoming trip’s agenda and envoys from Jamaica and other former British colonies have already petitioned the monarch to help their campaign to be compensated for the slave trade.

The monarch will follow government advice not to issue an official apology. A Buckingham Palace spokesman previously said that the monarch would instead find opportunities to “reflect and renew his personal, wholehearted, and continuing commitment” to acknowledging the “darkest days of our past”, the Telegraph reports.

King Charles must try balance the demands of some Commonwealth campaigners and UK government decisions.

A Palace spokesman said: “It is important to note here the work His Majesty himself has done over many years both to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and to find creative ways to ‘right inequalities that endure’.

“As you would therefore expect, opportunities will be found during the visit to reflect and renew his personal, wholehearted and continuing commitment to that process.”

Mrs Ayorkor Botchwey, a staunch supporter of reparations, said on Thursday, “It is important to determine the form that reparations should take, and that is something that will emerge eventually.

“Us as countries sit around the table to discuss, as difficult a subject as it is, I believe that countries will come to some conclusions. So whether it takes the form of financial reparations or reparations in kind, that is for the countries to decide on.”

Asked what she meant by “reparations in kind”, Mrs Ayorkor Botchwey said it could involve “concessional financing”, “return of artefacts” and “climate issues”.