Former prime minister Tony Blair has questioned the benefits of the British monarchy apologising for its historic role in the transatlantic slave trade.
In an interview with Newsweek today promoting his new book On Leadership, Blair said that it was “absurd” to judge history by today’s moral standards. When asked by Newsweek‘s Global Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper whether he thought King Charles should apologise for slavery, Blair said: “I think [with] all of these arguments, you can go back over history and you end up in a completely absurd position.”
“I have no idea what Winston Churchill’s views are on transgender. I don’t suppose he was ever asked and he probably never thought about it,” Blair said. “But who knows? But supposing it was found that he had, let’s say, not entirely modern views on this — which is quite possible — does that mean he was a bad guy?” He added: “Slavery was a horrible thing. It should never have happened. Of course we [the British Empire] were wrong”.