At the time, he said: “I’m afraid as Caribbean people we are not going to forget our history – we don’t just want to hear an apology, we want reparation.”
When pressed on his Cabinet colleague’s comments, Mr Kyle said: “That was David Lammy long before he became Foreign Secretary. Now he speaks on behalf of the Labour Government and this is a new Labour Government.
“We are focused on the future and when we move forward as a country we are thinking globally as well, and we want to make sure that our global partners and particularly those that we have historic and cultural ties to, that we make sure that those countries benefit from the success that Britain has.”
Mr Kyle added: “These are very tricky historical ties that we have which means we need to deal with them with all sensitivity. Sensitivity does not involve me as a Science Secretary discussing it openly and negotiating with you.
“Those tricky diplomatic issues will be dealt with all of the tact and delicacy that is needed from the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary going forward. We will deal with these issues in a very sensitive way with them as we move forward as a country.”
‘Hard truths’ about slavery
He said while the world should be able to benefit from the success of a “resurgent Britain”, that had to be done “in a way that’s fit for the 2020s”.
During his time as a Labour backbencher, Mr Lammy argued “hard truths” needed to be told about slavery and was one of the leading campaigners for compensation over the Windrush affair.
He has often reflected on his own family’s experience of slavery and last month recalled how his relatives were “taken from Africa across the Atlantic to labour in the Caribbean”.
Rishi Sunak’s government repeatedly rejected the case for slavery reparations but leaders of countries affected by Britain’s colonial past are hopeful Labour will take a different stance.
Last week Sir Hilary Beckles, the chairman of the Caribbean Community reparations commission, said the Foreign Secretary should have a “free hand” to negotiate payouts.
Sir Hilary told Reuters: “It is our intention to persist with this strategy of calling for a summit to work through what a reparatory justice model ought to look like in the case of the Caribbean.
“He [Mr Lammy] has been a supporter of the discourse while he was in opposition. The question is whether he would be given a free hand in his Government to take the matter to a higher level.”
Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, has said in the past that slave-owning nations owed her country £3.9 trillion.
She has called for “difficult” conversations over how the debt should be repaid and is expected to raise the issue at the Chogm talks.
As well as the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, the King and Queen will also be in attendance at Chogm in Samoa next week.
Downing Street has insisted the final agenda for the summit is yet to be drawn up and that calls for compensation from Caribbean leaders are currently no more than “speculation”.