John Healey says UK apology over historic role in slave trade won’t lead to financial reparations – as it happened

At the end of his interview with Kuennsberg, Healey was also asked to comment on a potential apology for Britain’s near-250 years of perpetrating the slave trade and why the government should or shouldn’t pay reparations to enslaved people and their countries.

Sitting in the grand settings of Number 11 Downing St, Kuenssberg pointed out the lavish interiors:

“So many Commonwealth countries think that this country’s wealth, maybe the wealth in this building, this gilt chandelier, came off the back of slavery. So why is a government not willing to contemplate reparations?”

Healey replied saying the PM was open to “a discussion about an apology”, but “he doesn’t believe that reparations are the right approach”.