Former royal spokesperson Dickie Arbiter has said King Charles should be furious with Prime Minister Andy Burnham after the Labour leader said he would consider a formal apology for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Burnham confirmed this week he would not consider financial reparations, but that did not satisfy Arbiter, who appeared on Jeremy Kyle's TalkTV show to criticise the move.
Arbiter: Everyone is guilty
Arbiter said: "We're not the only country in the world who was responsible for it. If you look at the history of Europe, the United Kingdom had an act in 1807 [to abolish slavery]; it took another 100 years for France to follow suit."
He added: "Every country in Europe was in on the act of slave trading. North African countries were on the active slave trade. Even the countries where Africans were taken from were in on the act. The Asantes, for example, in what is now Ghana, they were at war constantly. Their prisoners, they sold into slavery."
Arbiter concluded: "So everybody is guilty. Should everybody be standing up now and apologising?"
Kyle highlights modern slavery
Kyle interjected: "It's not even about the apology. I can't be too political with you, but for example what I also wanted him to say is that it's still going on, Dickie! Today!"
He added: "Slave labour is taking place in Chinese warehouses. We know that – clothes that are made in ridiculous sweatshops where people are treated appallingly, yet it's always Great Britain."
Kyle also referenced the Royal Navy's role in St Helena, where troops fought against the slave trade and rescued captured enslaved people. Around 150,000 were liberated, while 8,000 of those enslaved died. Over the 52-year period, 17,000 Royal Navy men died, either from disease or from being killed in action.
Burnham 'dropped the King into it'
Arbiter said: "If you look to the future, Andy Burnham has got some questions to answer, because he literally dropped the King into it. The King was already on his Caribbean tour and Burnham announces, 'Well, I might apologise'."
He added: "Whether any discussions had taken place with [His Majesty], whether any discussions had taken place with Buckingham Palace, I doubt it. There tends to be, amongst the politicians, a knee-jerk reaction to get votes. That's what it's all about."
