One topic that has come up at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa this week has been reparations for slavery.
Many countries want to see some kind of acknowledgment or apology from the UK for its role in human trafficking as part of the summit.
But Sir Keir Starmer has sought to avoid this.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labor MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill and chair of the party’s Parliamentary Group on African Reparations, discussed the issue with Sky News this morning.
He tried to give context to the proposed compensation – up to £18bn. This is about nine times the GDP of Great Britain.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy says: “I know there’s been an assessment of what compensation should be paid and people just need to understand … that’s important when you’re making a claim that it’s determined.
“However, there is no money that can fully compensate for the horrors of slavery and colonialism.”
He continues: “People keep focusing on the characters – and I understand why they hear these numbers and they get scared.
“But with any argument it’s important that you do the quantification, and they’ve done that to make sure people understand the scale and the impact of Britain and the UK’s actions, particularly the economic impact.
“But you have to remember that financial compensation is not the only way to make compensation.”
Lack of apology means lack of respect
Instead, he says, many countries would benefit from other issues being dealt with first rather than being given lump sums – with some nations struggling with debt.
Ribeiro-Addy says they don’t have access to credit in the same way as the UK and that trade could be unfair to them.
Asked whether Britain should apologize to the nation, the Labor MP said: “I think the reason they don’t apologize is maybe because of responsibility.
“But the lack of apology speaks to an absolute lack of respect.
“If we considered these countries equal, we would apologize to them.”