'This is how Chagos started!' Suella Braverman warns Andy Burnham against formal slave trade apology

Suella Braverman has warned Andy Burnham against issuing a formal apology for the transatlantic slave trade.

The Reform UK equalities spokeswoman told GB News the Prime Minister was being "naive" after he personally expressed his "sorrow and regret" for the slave trade ahead of his visit to the Caribbean.

King Charles, who is already in the region, ruled out a formal state apology just a day after Mr Burnham said he was "open" to the idea.

Despite Mr Burnham rejecting reparations, the Caribbean community (Caricom) has continued to insist its countries receive financial compensation for the trade abolished 200 years ago.

Ms Braverman has now warned the Makerfield MP that issuing a formal apology could force Britain to pay reparations.

She told The People's Channel: "Slavery was abhorrent. That is an indisputable fact. But the conversation that Burnham wants to start right now is naive.

"It's virtue signalling, and it's frankly dangerous because, if the UK were to issue a formal, state-backed apology, it could actually bind us to legally-binding reparations.

"And this is exactly how the Chagos disaster started, with the UK paying £30billion to Mauritius in a conversation [that] was indulged by the last Conservative government."

Mr Burnham, writing in The Guardian, said he was ready to engage in "structured dialogue" with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade, but ruled out reparations because modern Britons played no role in the trade.

Philip J Pierre, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia and Chairman of Caricom said in a statement that the region does not accept that "reparations are 'not the right answer'", adding that an apology without action is "incomplete".

But Ms Braverman said Britain should not issue any form of apology, pointing to its role in ending the slave trade.

She said: "I don't think we should be apologising. The British people of the 21st century owe no responsibility, they bear no burden, and they do not deserve to apologise for the wrongdoings of slave traders in the 18th century."

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"And let's not forget that Britain actually did, more than any other nation historically, to end slavery through using our Royal Navy in the West African Squadron to actually police the seas and enforce the ban on slavery.

"It was Britain that led the abolition movement, and many other countries followed too."

The Caricom's persistent call for reparations has now raised serious questions over the role of the Commonwealth, the Reform UK equalities spokeswoman said.

She added: "I think that if Commonwealth countries constantly want to be looking back to what happened several centuries ago and [are] blaming Britain, gaslighting the British people and guilting the 21st-century Brits, then I do think serious questions have to be asked about what our role is in the Commonwealth.

"These countries, they are friends, they are allies. But we want them to be looking forward.

"We want them to take responsibility for their own finances, for the state of their countries, and they can't constantly hark back to the historical times to try and find someone else to blame for their own failures today."

Although Britain has ruled out reparations, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown will join Mr Burnham in the Caribbean with a proposal to restructure debt for low-income and vulnerable countries.

But the Caricom has met this idea with scepticism, saying that most member states are considered middle or high-income on a per capita basis.

The Chairman of Caricom added that despite being high-income, countries in the region are "the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate and economic shocks".