Commonwealth leaders are expected to call for “meaningful” talks on reparations during a summit with Sir Keir Starmer in Samoa that starts on Friday.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly said reparations will not be paid, explaining this week that he wanted to avoid “endless” discussions about the past” and adding: “This is about stance, really, looking forward rather than looking backwards.”
This is thought to be the first time the Government has explicitly said that it cannot afford to pay the sums being asked for.
A report published last year by the University of West Indies, backed by Patrick Robinson, a judge who sits on the International Court of Justice, concluded that the UK owed £18 trillion in reparations for its role in slavery in 14 Caribbean countries – a sum almost seven times the size of the entire British economy.
Ms Reeves also signalled that part of the UK’s foreign aid budget will continue to be used to help process asylum seekers, saying: “If we can get a grip of that asylum budget, we can free up resource for what the intention of that budget was.”