An apology for slavery will help build trust across the Commonwealth

The Caribbean Community has ten relatively modest proposals for repairing relations with the UK

The writer is a communications strategist for Burson and was political secretary to Tony Blair

Embarking on a discussion of Britain's central role in the slave trade is fraught. But it has become unavoidable. The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua is a major diplomatic event that reflects the concerns of leaders across the Commonwealth on economic, social and environmental questions. Since almost three-fifths of Commonwealth nations are either African or Caribbean, however, one issue above all is top of the agenda -- the trafficking of enslaved Africans and its human cost.

In his opening address, King Charles III chose his words carefully, saying "The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons still casts a shadow over these islands and other members of our Commonwealth. As I have said before, that shameful chapter of history is one that fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow." His strength of feeling was clear.

But it is complicated. While he is head of the Commonwealth, the King is also the monarch of 15 member countries including Antigua and the UK. When he speaks as Commonwealth leader, he has the views of the prime ministers of all of these countries to take into account. Just because the King resides in the UK doesn't make his local prime minister, Andy Burnham, any more authoritative in advising him than any of the others. But the British government's stance is central to any resolution.

The heart of the debate at this week's meeting -- and in preparatory sessions -- is the desire for the British state to make a formal apology for the horrific crime of chattel slavery. Blair had, when he was prime minister, already gone some of the way in Ghana in 2007, saying: "I have said we are sorry and I say it again." At that time I was working for him, but for the last four years I have been supporting Philip "Brave" Davis, the prime minister of the Bahamas. Today the new demand is for a formal apology and a new process of making concrete amends.

Some in Whitehall may be urging caution. But Burnham feels personally the importance of a formal apology in restoring trust and repairing relationships. The Hillsborough disaster and the subsequent cover-up by the authorities meant to protect football fans have been formative to his politics and leadership.

An apology opens a space for a conversation which, when handled properly, could draw people together rather than dividing them. Burnham's superpower is his ability to drive the political agenda by stating the blindingly obvious -- Brexit is a failure, say, or social care needs to be fixed -- and then curating the conversation.

The prime minister's problem on this particular issue is twofold: a new racialisation of political discourse in the UK; and the role of outrage and clickbait in the modern media. The perfectly straightforward observation that enslavement was a reality and still has a human and economic legacy leads rightwing broadcasters and newspapers to ask: "why should British taxpayers foot any bill for actions before they were born?" This is a caricature of Caribbean claims for reparations -- a word that originally meant repair not repay.

Repair is what CARICOM -- the Caribbean Community that unites nations on shared economic and security concerns -- is asking for. Their manifesto on reparations has ten relatively modest proposals -- the main asks are investment in human, social and economic capital through public health programmes, illiteracy eradication, culture and technology. The tenth one addresses financial questions, including debt cancellation.

The UK has pursued a similar path before -- in 2005, Blair, along with then chancellor Gordon Brown, led the G7 in moves to eradicate the debt of highly indebted countries. Brown was here, in Antigua this week, with a proposal on how this could be done again.

For Burnham, and his foreign secretary Ed Miliband, it's an approach that reflects their belief that you don't have to trade away your values to protect your country's interests. In September, the UK announcement of sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank created a coalition of 12 nations and strengthened the UK's moral authority. Similarly, the CHOGM communiqué, which charts a way forward on a formal apology and steps to repair relationships within the Commonwealth, gives the UK better standing in the global south as an honest broker.

Or as the UK prime minister put it, "structured dialogue" can enable a positive outcome: "It's important as part of a partnership that you listen when people want to raise things. And that's what we've suggested this week." And it doesn't hurt that it could help rebuild Labour's broken domestic electoral coalition. For many voters who defected from Labour to the Greens this May, geopolitics is domestic politics. A formal apology for enslavement would be another step to repair those relationships too.