Gonsalves Says UK Opposed Reparations at Commonwealth Summit
Ralph Gonsalves, a former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, has told the Guardian that British officials insisted slavery reparations should not be on the agenda of the Commonwealth leaders' summit in Antigua and Barbuda.
Gonsalves is a senior figure in the Repair Campaign, a movement that presses for reparatory justice, meaning compensation or other forms of redress for the harms of slavery. He said British officials, joined by Canadian officials, warned that British prime minister Andy Burnham would not attend the summit, known as CHOGM (the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting), if reparations were formally included on the agenda.
As of 1 November 2026, slavery reparations was not on the official agenda. CHOGM is scheduled to run from 1 to 4 November in St John's, Antigua and Barbuda.
Gonsalves also said that claims India did not want reparations on the CHOGM agenda were untrue. He pointed to India's support for a United Nations General Assembly resolution on 25 March 2026.
Burnham has agreed to a structured dialogue on reparations, a formal, continuing discussion between the parties, and to consider an apology for Britain's role in the slave trade. He announced both in an opinion article in the Guardian. Gonsalves said the dialogue itself was unlikely to take place at the summit, but that its format and details were expected to be discussed during a private retreat for leaders.
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, which represents the Caribbean Community's work on the issue, called the Antigua meeting "the Chogm of reparations." He said reparatory justice was the number one item for the Caribbean.
The question is not new to UK-Caribbean relations. At the Eleventh UK-Caribbean Forum, a ministerial meeting in 2023, ministers exchanged views on the Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice developed by the CARICOM Reparations Commission. The forum's action plan recorded a commitment to further dialogue on reparatory justice linked to that plan.
King Charles and Burnham were also expected to face protests demanding reparations over the transatlantic slave trade at the Antigua summit. Earlier, in September, Burnham had been under pressure to confirm that he would attend the November meeting, as Caribbean demands for reparations grew.
