Miliband criticises Blair’s slavery statement and defends Burnham’s plan for proper apology – UK politics live

Good morning. Wednesdays are normally the most exciting day of the week at Westminster, because it’s PMQs, but today (unless we get some mega surprise) all the action is taking place somewhere else. In part, that’s because Andy Burnham is still at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua. But mostly because anyone in SW1 with even a passing interest in politics will be far more interested in the outcome of the US midterm elections. You can catch up with all the drama on our US politics live blog.

While the US results are undoubtedly fascinating, quite how relevant they are to the UK is a bit harder to discern. Donald Trump is still president for the next two years, and none of the chaos he has caused for Britain and other European allies is going to go away; conceivably, he could end up even more disruptive. Trump was first elected president in 2016 only months after the UK voted for Brexit and there will be progressives in Britain hoping the US results show that what Ed Davey is this morning calling the “politics of hate, division and economic harm” might be on their way out this side of the pond too. Maybe? But it is probably too soon to get carried away. Our US coverage is all here. In so far as there is any interesting UK reaction, I will post it here.

Back to the Commonwealth summit, and Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, has given an interview to the BBC in which he defended Burnham’s decision to open talks about a proper UK apology for slavery. In particular, Miliband was critical of Tony Blair’s attempts to settle this issue with what Miliband described as a “sorry not sorry” apology.

Miliband was referring to this statement that Blair issued in 2006, written up at the time by the Guardian here. Blair said the slave trade was “profoundly shameful” and he expressed “deep sorrow that it ever happened”. But he did not formally apologise.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newscast podcast, Miliband said Burnham wanted a different approach. He said:

People have been honestly a bit bruised by the past, what happened in the past, the sense that we just really just wanted to sweep this issue under the carpet and not confront it.

My sense is there’s a bit of a sigh of relief that, OK … at least there’s a sense of we’ve got a shared interest now in moving the Commonwealth on.

Miliband said Blair “did sort of do a kind of sorry not sorry situation”. He added: “He kind of expressed ‘sorrow, but’ and then said sorry, and then it was walked back by No 10.”

(Miliband has for many years had a strained relationship with the former prime minister, who was opposed to the way Miliband criticised some aspects of New Labour’s record when he was party leader between 2010 and 2015. These latest remarks are just the latest example of feuding between the two of them.)

Burnham has said he wants a “structured dialogue” with Commonwealth countries about the wording of an apology. Asked whether the government might reach the point of a formal apology by the time it hosts the G20 leaders’ summit in Manchester next November, Miliband said: “Broadly speaking, yes.”

But he also stressed that the UK was not offering reparations. Asked whether the government’s new approach could end up costing UK taxpayers a penny more, Miliband replied:

No … For us, that’s never been what it’s about. And that’s why it’s been important that … I did have this conversation with our partners in advance. I said, ‘Look, we are going to say we are willing to say that we’re open to an apology, but we’re not going to shift our position on reparations.’

It’s not for us. It’s not the right answer. It’s not practical. It’s not feasible for us, but there are things we can work on co-operatively.

9.30am: Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, gives evidence to the Commons health committee.

10am: Lucy Powell, the education secretary, gives evidence to the Commons education committee.

Noon: Louise Haigh, the first secretary of state, faces Alex Burghart, the deputy Conservative leader, at PMQs.

Afternoon (UK time): Andy Burnham is due to record a pooled TV interview while attending the final day of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda.

2.15pm: Jonathan Haskel, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, gives evidence with colleagues to the Commons Treasury committee about the budget.

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