Why does UK fear formally apologising for its colonial past?

The United Kingdom will not be apologising for slavery.

King Charles III on Friday acknowledged the “painful aspects” of British colonial rule.

Charles was speaking at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa which began on Monday.

The summit was attended by representatives of 56 countries – most with roots in Britain’s empire.

“I understand from listening to people across the Commonwealth how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate," Charles said.

However, Charles stopped short of mentioning financial reparations that some leaders at the event have urged. He instead asked them to find the “right language” and an understanding of history “to guide us towards making the right choices in future where inequality exists.”

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Charles’ speech comes just days after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer ruled out apologising for his country’s role in the slave trade and rejected calls for reparations.

The UK has never formally apologized for its role in the trade, in which millions of African citizens were kidnapped and transported to plantations in the Caribbean and Americas over several centuries, enriching many individuals and companies.

Charles during the previous Commonwealth Summit in Rwanda said he felt a “profound sorrow” about slavery .

Prince William, on a royal tour in 2022, referred to the slave trade as “abhorrent.”

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But why does the UK fear formally apologising for its colonial past? And what do experts say?

Let’s take a closer look:

Why does UK fear doing so?

The UK seems to want to leave the past in the past.

Starmer, asked about reparations, told BBC we “can't change our history."

Starmer also pointed out that “an apology has already been made in relation to the slave trade.”

He was referring to then prime minister Tony Blair’s remarks following talks with the president of Ghana in 2007.

Blair at time said, “I have said we are sorry and I say it again.”

Starmer instead said the emphasis ought to be on “today’s challenges” such as climate change and increasing trade.

Starmer said he wanted to work with member nations to “unlock money that might help them” with regard to climate change.

Starmer echoed comments on reparations made on Thursday by UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who said “that’s not something that this government is doing.”

Starmer on Wednesday said Commonwealth nations ought to be “facing forward” rather than have “very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past.”

However, one suspects the true reason for not offering an apology is simple – it may open up the door to discussing reparations, which the UK simply can’t afford.

Different experts have reached various estimates as to what the UK owes for reparations – many of which are eye-popping numbers.

The Independent quoted a report from International Court of Justice judge Patrick Robinson as stating that the UK ought to pay $24 trillion for its involvement in the slave trade in 14 Caribbean nations.

The study was done by US consultancy firm Brattle Group as well as the American Society of International Law and the University of the West Indies.

Most of the reparations would be paid to Jamaica and Barbados where around two million slaves were born, died or transported, as per MSN.

But Robinson told the BBC even this number was likely “an underestimation of the reality of the damage caused by transatlantic chattel slavery.”

Reverend Dr Michael Banner, the Dean of Trinity College Cambridge, earlier this year said the UK owed at least $266 million in reparations.

And it isn’t just the Caribbean nations the UK owes.

Economist Utsa Patnaik, for example, in 2017 estimated that the British Raj drained India of resources worth $45 trillion from 1765 to 1938.

The problem with these reports are that the UK couldn’t pay trillions of dollars back to these countries even if it was so inclined.

As per MSN, if the UK was to pay back the $24 trillion in reparations over the next two and a half decades – at an interest rate of 2.5 per cent – it works out to $960 million per year.

As per The Telegraph, Reeves, asked this week if the UK could afford to pay reparations, simply said, “No.”

As Patnaik noted, “While the idea is an honourable one, it is not practicable for Britain to do so, for it is not rich enough to repay even a fraction of what it extracted from India over nearly two centuries. It used so much of its colonies’ earnings to export capital to Europe, North America and regions of recent white settlement, that the entire industrializing world throve on.”

Interestingly, when the UK abolished slavery in 1833, it did pay compensation – to the owners of the slaves.

Britain paid slave owners around $25 million in compensation for the ‘loss of their property.’

According to The Standard UK, the payment at the time comprised 40 per cent of the UK’s budget.

The loan the UK took to cover this debt was paid off in 2015.

What do experts say?

Some have slammed the UK government’s approach to the subject.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations, told The Guardian “we need to look at clearing debt”, as well as “climate resilience” and “returning artefacts”.

“An apology is free. But the way in which we are not willing to apologise for one of the worst crimes in humanity speaks volumes. The next step has to be climate resilience – in Caribbean and small island states things are getting worse. At the moment our solution to problems is to give a bit of aid. Aid is not reparations, it has a lot of strings attached. The aid industry was meant to alleviate poverty, but it’s become an industry and all industries operate on supply and demand, so it benefits the industry to keep people in poverty,” she said.

Clive Lewis MP, who hosts the Heirs of Enslavement podcast, added, “If you’re not going to deal with the very cause of the structural racism in the most basic way, by an apology, then is it any more than window-dressing that you say we’re going to build a fairer Britain for black people?”

Others disagree.

A piece in The Independent, noting the key role the UK played in the slave trade, also noted how powerful African kingdoms did much the same during that period.

It quoted King Gezo, who reigned modern-day Benin from 1818 to 1858, as saying, “The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth.”

Gezo said he would do anything the British asked except stop trading in slaves.

The piece also argued that the talk about reparations also ignores Britain’s role in eradicating the slave trade.

“Deepening collaboration, in the name of fostering a more secure and sustainable Commonwealth, which provides greater educational and economic opportunities for its hundreds and millions of aspirational young people, should be the overarching objective,” the piece argued.

But some retain hope that the UK will come around – particularly when it comes to the apology.

BBC quoted Bahamas foreign minister Frederick Mitchell as saying, “It may take a while for people to come around but come around they will.”

“It’s a simple matter - it can be done, one sentence, one line,” Mitchell added.

Others insist a mere apology isn’t enough.

As Prime Minister of the Bahamas Philip Davis said, “It’s not just about an apology. It’s not about money. It’s about an appreciation and understanding of what our ancestors went through.”

With inputs from agencies