Sir Keir Starmer will fly into a fresh debate over slavery reparations and Britain’s shrinking aid budget this week when he arrives on the Pacific island state of Samoa for the annual Commonwealth heads of government meeting.
The UK prime minister is embarking on a gruelling 36-hour flight in order to represent the government at his first CHOGM gathering — before racing back for the Budget on October 30.
He faces tricky questions about compensation for historic slavery after a leading contender to be Commonwealth secretary-general told the Financial Times that “the timing is right to begin a discussion on reparatory justice”.
Joshua Setipa, former trade minister for Lesotho, said reparations had “gained traction and global attention” and that the Commonwealth was the best forum to make a “political commitment” to address the issue.
King Charles, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will also attend the summit for the first time as head of the Commonwealth, an organisation that evolved from the British empire and faces existential questions.
With Britain’s global influence under question, the 75-year-old monarch’s challenge is to revitalise the organisation in the face of strengthening republican voices in some of the 14 member countries, such as Jamaica and Belize, where he is head of state.
The royal couple are touring Australia ahead of the CHOGM with a reception in their honour in Canberra on October 21, but none of the country’s state premiers are attending in an apparent snub.
Last month the organiser of the next Commonwealth Games insisted that the four-yearly contest was not a “dying event”. Durban in South Africa, Victoria in Australia and Alberta in Canada have all scrapped plans to host the games on cost grounds in 2022, 2026 and 2030 respectively.
Birmingham and Glasgow stepped in to host the 2022 and 2026 games, but the future of the event remains uncertain.
Downing Street said the Samoa summit was a chance for member countries to discuss “shared challenges and opportunities” such as economic growth.
There has been a rebranding of what used to be called “the British Commonwealth” in recent years — first as the Commonwealth and now as the “Commonwealth of Nations”.
“Everyone wants to move away from the whiff of colonialism,” said Jonathan Eyal, associate director of the think-tank RUSI, adding that Britain’s role had been reduced to “just one in the club”.
It has pivoted to focus heavily on social mobility, inclusion, economic development, good governance and environmental protection. It also offers support on issues such as security co-operation and election monitoring.
The question of whether King Charles III would succeed his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, as head of the organisation, was not always a given. “There was quite a lot of effort and weight put by the late queen in ensuring that Charles took on the mantle,” said Eyal.
Downing Street said Britain would not pay any slavery reparations and insisted the fraught issue is not on the summit agenda. But a group of 15 Caribbean governments are hoping to raise the topic at the event.
Baroness Patricia Scotland, a British former attorney-general, has reached the end of her eight-year term as secretary-general and her successor will be decided in Samoa.
And all three candidates to succeed her are open to the idea of financial reparations from countries that engaged in slavery centuries ago.
Setipa, one of the trio, told the FT that the time had come for countries to “acknowledge injustices committed during slavery and colonialism” and their lingering impact.
He said reparatory justice was not just about former colonies receiving “cheques” which could never match the scale of historic damage. “Take India. If the UK were to calculate how much it has to pay India, I don’t think it even has that much money.”
Instead Setipa said richer nations should back reforms to the global financial system, including the provision of more concessional loans and grants.
Mamadou Tangara, Gambia’s foreign minister, and another candidate for the top Commonwealth job, supports the idea of reparatory justice through the convening power of the Commonwealth.
Shirley Botchwey, Ghana’s foreign minister, and a third candidate, has been more circumspect but supports the idea of discussing reparations within the Commonwealth framework.
The Church of England has set out plans to create a £1bn fund to address the legacy of colonial slavery.
Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the UK in the World programme at Chatham House think-tank, said the Commonwealth faced “organisational challenges” not least because it was a strikingly disparate group of nations.
But she said members had common concerns such as climate change given many Commonwealth states are small island nations.
“There are a number of Commonwealth countries in the south Pacific and Caribbean which are highly vulnerable to climate change — either from the increased frequency and severity of hurricanes or from rising sea levels, with some already becoming uninsurable,” said Michael Jacobs, professor of political economy at Sheffield University. “They will want more money . . . and they want international financial systems to recognise their vulnerability regardless of their income level.”
Some leaders are also expected to press Starmer on Britain’s aid budget, which is under pressure from the ballooning costs of supporting asylum seekers at home.
David Lammy, foreign secretary, has been pushing for an emergency top-up to development spending with more than a quarter of the UK’s £15.4bn overseas aid budget now being spent hosting asylum seekers and refugees. This more than consumed the £2.5bn increases in the aid budget scheduled between 2022 and 2024 by former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Gideon Rabinowitz, head of policy at Bond, a group that represents international development charities, said British bilateral aid to Commonwealth countries had already slumped by 70 per cent since 2019, from £1.88bn to £0.57bn.
“The prime minister is going to go to CHOGM and say ‘we’re back on the world stage’,” he said. “If two weeks later they cut the aid budget then they are going to leave countries high and dry at a time when they need our support more than ever.”