Keir Starmer ‘open to discussing non-cash forms of reparatory justice for slavery’ – UK politics live | Politics

The UK government’s borrowing costs have risen on global financial markets amid expectations that Rachel Reeves will change Britain’s debt rules to unlock up to £50bn of additional headroom for investment in infrastructure, Richard Partington reports. He says:

The yield – in effect the interest rate – on UK government bonds rose by about six points to trade above 4.2% in early trading on Thursday morning before easing, contrasting with a fall in borrowing costs for other comparable countries, including the US. The spread between gilts and German debt rose to the highest in more than a year, according to Bloomberg.

“It seems to be related to Reeves last night suggesting that the fiscal rules would be rewritten to increase spending on infrastructure,” Lyn Graham-Taylor, a senior rates strategist at Rabobank, told Reuters.

Here is the full story.

Robin Butler, the former cabinet secretary who is now a peer, has described being in a Brighton hotel room with Margaret Thatcher when an IRA bomb exploded – and how she rushed in to check on her husband, Dennis, after he hesitated.

Butler, who was the head civil servant under Thatcher, John Major and (briefly) Tony Blair, told a podcast led by the Lord Speaker, John McFall, that he was with the then-prime minister in the sitting room of her suite at the Grand hotel at around 3am in October 1984, going over some government business, when there was “this mighty explosion”. He went on:

And I’d heard bombs before, so I knew it was a bomb. I suddenly came to, and I thought, ‘You’re alone with the prime minister. Somebody’s trying to blow her up. You better do something sensible.’ So I said to her, ‘I think you should come away from the windows in case there’s another bomb.’ She didn’t hesitate for a moment. She said, ‘I must see if Dennis is all right.’

So she goes to the bedroom, opens the door, bedroom in darkness. And you could hear the sounds of falling masonry through, because it was the bathroom that was collapsing. And I should have said, ‘Stand back, prime minister. This is a job for somebody more dispensable than you,’ but I had my inhibitions, so she went in. And a moment or two later, she came out with Dennis pulling his grey flannel trousers over his pyjamas. We went out into the corridor and we looked up the corridor, and amazingly the lights had stayed on despite this huge explosion in the hotel.

And when we looked up, the next suite along, we saw what looked like smoke coming out from under the door. And that was the suite that Geoffrey Howe had. So I thought the bomb must have been in there. And again, I’ll never forget it, his security man was running at the door trying to kick it in so that … And luckily he failed because there had been a void the other side of the door. Geoffrey came out from the next room along, which was their bedroom, and came down.

Butler also recounts having to tell Thatcher later in the morning that five people were confirmed dead and two of her ministers, Norman Tebbit and John Wakeham were either trapped or badly hurt:

She didn’t hesitate for a moment. She said, ‘Well, the conference is due to begin at 9.30, and we must make sure it begins on time.’ And I was appalled. I said to her, ‘This terrible thing’s happened. Some of your closest colleagues have been killed and badly injured. You can’t be going on with a party conference.’ And she said, ‘This is our opportunity to show that terrorism can’t defeat democracy.’ Of course, she was right and I was wrong, and that’s what she did demonstrate.

Crime figures out today show robbery, violence with injury and fraud up significantly over the past year.

As the Office for National Statistics says in a report, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) shows a 10% increase in overall crime in the year ending June 2024, compared to the previous year.

The ONS says that overall crime, on this measure, has been falling over the past decade, and that the 10% increase might be partly explained by the fact that the previous survey period covered a time when some Covid restrictions were in force.

But it says with some crimes there has been a “notable” rise. It says:

While most crime types did not show a statistically significant change, there were notable increases in robbery, violence with injury and consumer and retail fraud. In the year ending June 2024:

-robbery returned to levels last seen before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, rising to an estimated 139,000 incidents, compared with 60,000 incidents in YE [year ending] June 2023; although police recorded crime is our preferred source for robbery

-violence with injury also returned to pre-pandemic levels and increased to an estimated 562,000 incidents from around 376,000 incidents in YE June 2023

-consumer and retail fraud increased by 19%, reaching approximately 963,000 incidents

The crime survey measures crime by asking people what crime they have experienced. It is seen as a good way of measuring some crimes, like violence and fraud, while statistics about the crimes recorded by police are seen as a more accurate measure of other crimes, like robbery.

Here is a chart from the report with the headline crime figures, as recorded by the crime survey. There is a gap where comparable data is not available.

And here are figures for specific crimes, using a mix of crime survey data (CSEW) and police recorded crime data (PRC).

Keir Starmer is open to discussing non-cash forms of reparatory justice for Britain’s former colonies, the Guardian understands.

The prime minister is under pressure to open the door to reparations at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Samoa this week.

Caribbean countries have been pushing for the issue to be discussed at the summit, despite resistance from the UK government.

No 10 has ruled out paying reparations or apologising for the UK’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, and this uncompromising tone has irritated some Commonwealth countries.

But a Downing Street source indicated that the UK could support some forms of reparatory justice, such restructuring financial institutions and providing debt relief. The source said:

There is a general sense that these multilateral institutions give out loans to developing countries then charge large interest rates for repayments.

They added that reforming financial situations was something the UK often took a lead on and was a form of reparatory justice that would not come at a cost to UK taxpayers.

Other proposed forms of restorative justice include making a formal apology, running educational programmes, establishing cultural institutions and providing economic and public health support.

A draft of the CHOGM communique leaked to the BBC said that governments, “noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement … agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.”

According to the broadcaster the communique sought to broaden the issue to include the slave trade not just across the Atlantic but in the Pacific, by saying that a majority of Commonwealth countries “share common historical experiences”.

It mentioned the practice of “blackbirding”, where Pacific islanders were kidnapped and brought to Australia where they were sold as slaves or cheap labour to work on plantations in Queensland.

In 2021 Jack Dempsey, then mayor of Bundaberg in Queensland, issued a formal apology for blackbirding.

Asked about reparations ahead of the Chogm summit Pat Conroy, Australia’s minister for the Indo-Pacific, told the Guardian:

I don’t want to get into the UK particular focus but what I can say is from an Australian point of view, on things like blackbirding, it’s really important to be conscious of the past, learn from it and not be afraid of discussing it.

No 10 has ruled out making a formal apology for slavery and colonialism at Chogm.

Philip Davis, the prime minister of the Bahamas, has said that he wants to have a “frank” conversation with Keir Starmer about slavery reparations.

In an interview with Politico, Davis also said that he was encouraged because he had worked with Starmer on death penalty cases when they were both lawyers in the past – and he knew Starmer to be a “fair-minded” person.

Davis was speaking to Politco’s Dan Bloom, who says the two prime ministers worked together on a case in the early 2000s that led to the mandatory death penalty being abolished in the Bahamas.

On the subject of reparations, referring to Starmer’s comment about wanting to look to the future not the past, Davis said:

I don’t want to comment on his views about looking forward or on the past, but I think knowing what the past is should inform your decision-making towards the future.

Let’s have a conversation about this … We all appreciate this, the horrendous impact that the transatlantic slave business had on the African diaspora and it requires justice.

It’s not just about an apology. It’s not about money. It’s about an appreciation and embracing and understanding of what our ancestors went through, that has left a scourge on our race, culturally, mentally and physically.

Davis also said that, because they knew each other, he hoped to have a “frank” conversation with Starmer on this.

He’s not unknown to me, we have come out of the same profession, and we will have met each other during the course of our profession over the years, and I’ve always known him to be a fair-minded, just individual.

Sometimes we get hamstrung by those around us.

The Green party says the UK should commit to paying slavery reparations.

Keir Starmer is refusing to talk about slavery reparations at the Commonwealth summit (during Black History Month no less).

The Green Party calls on the Government to commit to a holistic process of atonement and reparations.