King Charles addresses ‘monstrous injustice’ after debate over UK PM’s slavery apology plan

King Charles has opened the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda with a speech addressing slavery but stopped short of a formal apology.

The move comes after days of debate on the issue, following UK PM Andy Burnham’s declaration that he was open to considering a formal apology on behalf of the British state over the transatlantic slave trade.

The monarch, in his speech on Tuesday (Wednesday morning AEDT), acknowledged the UK’s colonial history, labelling the slave trade a “monstrous injustice” that “fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow”.

However, he urged the gathered world leaders to look forward and not back.

“History is not ours to choose or to change,” King Charles said.

“It is bequeathed to us in complex synthesis by forebears we can never know. Our inheritance includes both their achievements and their failures – the good they did as well as the wrongs.

“History can be hard to compass, viewed as it is through the prism of time, which can be both clarifying and distorting, and yet its consequences resonate with contemporary force.

“Our history inspires us, can appal us, yet it can always teach us.

“We cannot change the actions of those who came before us. We can, however, learn from the past.”

King Charles accepted the issue of slavery “still casts a shadow” over the Commonwealth but argued helping elevate struggling member countries was the best way forward.

“The more I have furthered my own understanding of the issues, through listening, learning and looking, the more committed I have become to finding ways for us to work in modern partnership to address the wrongs of the past with action for the future,” His Majesty said.

“Through improving access to education, investing in jobs and opportunities, encouraging intra-Commonwealth trade, and inspiring vital climate resilience measures across the world, I have always felt that there is so much that can be done to help lift up those who struggle against hardship and disadvantage.

“I have always tried to play my part in doing just that.”

The former Royal Navy officer then added another analogy to drive home his “we can’t change the past” message.

“For, as any sailor navigating the seas knows, we cannot command the winds, least of all where the winds of yesterday have delivered us – but we can choose how we set our sails,” King Charles said.

“The Commonwealth of today is not merely a product of the past – it is a response to the world of today. Its vocation is more compelling than ever.

“In fact, in a desperately troubled world, the Commonwealth has welcomed new members who see the unique value of this organisation and have chosen to be part of its future.”

Before his speech as Head of the Commonwealth, Buckingham Palace said King Charles would not wade into the political debate around Burnham’s apology plans.

They said His Majesty’s role is “inspiring and convening, rather than policy making”.

King Charles also broached the issue at the start of his nine-day Caribbean tour – his first as monarch – acknowledging the “great suffering of the past” in a speech in the Bahamas last week.

Burnham called the slave trade, which saw Africans trafficked to the Americas from the 16th to 19th Centuries, a “brutal and barbaric violation” and said Britain must “face up to the past” and it’s role in it.

“Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process,” he wrote in a piece for The Guardian on Friday.

“I am open to them.”

The subsequent debate across the weekend led the PM to rule out any financial reparations, while critics argued his views put pressure on the monarch for his CHOGM speech.

But Buckingham Palace said any formal apology or actions on behalf of the UK would not be for the King and would be a political decision for MPs to take.