‘None of us can change the past’ King Charles backs Keir Starmer in ruling out paying billions in reparations for slavery

King Charles has backed UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in ruling out reparations over slavery, saying: ‘None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.’

Speaking with leaders in Samoa, the monarch and new head of the Commonwealth said that it was important to understand and acknowledge ‘the most painful aspects of our past’.

He also made clear that it was crucial to look to the future and right ongoing inequalities through education, skills training, employment, health, and addressing climate change.

The King appeared to back British Prime Minister’s rejection of demands by some Commonwealth leaders, particularly from the Caribbean, to discuss plans to examine reparatory justice for the transatlantic slave trade, which could leave the UK owing billions of pounds.

He has said he wants to focus on current issues, such as the environment, instead.

In his first speech to the biannual congregation of leaders as the new leader of the ‘family of nations’ following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, Charles said: ‘Since this is the first occasion on which I find myself attending this gathering of our ‘Family of Nations,’ as Head of the Commonwealth, it gives my wife and myself enormous pleasure and pride to be with you for this twenty seventh Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

‘Together, we represent a third of humanity, with all the splendidly diverse complexity that this entails. And yet we know and understand each other, such that we can discuss the most challenging issues with openness and respect.

‘That said, our cohesion requires that we acknowledge where we have come from. I understand, from listening to people across the Commonwealth, how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate.’

He continued: It is vital, therefore, that we understand our history –to guide us to make the right choices in the future. Where inequalities exist, for example, in access to opportunity; to education; to skills training; to employment; to health; and to a planet in whose climate our human race can both survive and thrive, we must find the right ways, and the right language, to address them.

‘As we look around the world and consider its many deeply concerning challenges, let us choose within our Commonwealth family the language of community and respect, and reject the language of division.

‘None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure. ‘