Royal commentator Carole Malone has launched a fierce attack on Andy Burnham over his handling of the slavery apology row during King Charles's Caribbean tour, branding him “an idiot”.
Speaking on the Daily Express's Royals Unscripted podcast, Ms Malone criticised the Prime Minister over comments that left the King in an awkward position at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua.
Comments condemned as reckless
Ms Malone said: “My thoughts on that: he’s an idiot. You know this guy. You know he just blunders in with his size 10 clogs into every situation. Come on!” She condemned Burnham's openness to a formal British apology for the slave trade, insisting it was both historically misplaced and politically reckless.
She said: “We can’t be apologising for something that no one alive today has been any part of. We can’t apologise for the sins of our ancestors, 200 years ago, 250 years ago. It has nothing to do with the people who are alive today.” She warned that any apology would create dangerous legal consequences.
Britain's role in ending slavery
Ms Malone added: “But once you apologise, you’re kind of admitting the principle. So what you’re basically saying is, we were wrong. Yes, slavery was wrong, but we mustn’t forget that back then it was legal, and also Britain never had slaves here. It was not legal on these British Isles.”
She highlighted Britain's role in ending the trade and the financial cost involved. She said: “We were the country that ended slavery, and we spent a lot of money as a country in ending slavery. But you never hear the Commonwealth countries now screaming for money. You never hear them talking about the fact that in 1833 we actually spent 20 million quid, which is the equivalent of 17 billion pounds today. We spent that on freeing all the slaves. We gave them their freedom. We paid the slave traders off. You never hear them talking about that.”
Accusations of personal vanity
Ms Malone accused the Prime Minister of acting out of personal vanity. She said: “Because Burnham has this pathetic desire to be loved, he’s gone over to the Caribbean for this Commonwealth meeting and he’s talking about apologising. And what you do then is start a legal liability juggernaut in motion. If you apologise, these countries can say: you’ve apologised. That means you’re liable. That means you have to give us reparations now.”
She argued that further apologies would achieve nothing and would only encourage further demands. She said: “It’s never going to end. If you do apologise, then the questions come round. Even if Burnham apologises again, what good is this going to do? It’s not going to make any difference to what’s happening. But what it does do is allow these nations – and trust me, I think these are a whole load of chancers in these Caribbean countries – to see what they can get out of us.”
The outspoken attack has intensified pressure on the Prime Minister, who has denied claims that his comments made things more difficult for the King. No.10 said Mr Burnham had spoken throughout the CHOGM conference detailing his position on historic injustices, and that his position on not paying reparations was absolutely clear.
