Miliband Asserts UK Taxpayer Not Burdened by Slavery Apology

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has stated that the government’s openness to a formal apology for the UK’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade will not increase costs for British taxpayers.

The prime minister has declared that the United Kingdom will not make reparations payments to affected nations, though he has not clarified whether his new stance might entail extra taxpayer expenditure.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newscast podcast, Miliband noted that successive UK governments historically avoided confronting the suffering and legacy of slavery, referencing former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair’s “sorry, not sorry” comments made almost two decades earlier.

In 2007, Sir Tony remarked that the United Kingdom’s participation in the slave trade represented “deep sorrow and regret.”

“Tony Blair’s remarks amounted to a half‑hearted apology – he expressed regret, offered an apology, and then the statement was withdrawn by Downing Street,” Miliband explained.

Miliband said that the former prime minister’s approach continues to be invoked, including in a recent discussion between Andy Burnham and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Moreover, Miliband said that he and Burnham inherited a newer complication, namely the fallout from the most recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Samoa two years ago.

He recalled that on his second day as foreign secretary, he was informed that overseeing CHOGM 2024 in Samoa was a priority, and that the event proved problematic, devolving into a diplomatic spat.

He added that the matter has been a lingering issue for the Commonwealth for roughly two decades and has continued to intensify.

Consequently, Miliband argued, it was appropriate to confront the issue rather than pretend it did not exist.

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