Labour’s Emily Thornberry says PM should say sorry for past mistakes of Britain overseas

Theresa May should apologise to Commonwealth leaders for past failures by the British government, the shadow foreign secretary has said.



Emily Thornberry said Margaret Thatcher had ignored efforts by every other Commonwealth member to bring apartheid to an end in South Africa in the 1980s.

Thornberry also urged the prime minister to support other Commonwealth members in their efforts to right the “historic wrongs” of the Chagos Islands.

A Commonwealth summit is to be held in London this month.

In an article for the House magazine, Thornberry said: “This week would be an appropriate moment to correct that historic mistake, and would send a wider signal to our Commonwealth cousins that we in the UK truly recognise that the days are gone when our union was described – in colonial terms – as the ‘British Commonwealth’.

“This great institution does not exist for the benefit of Britain, and even less simply to make up for the post-Brexit hole in our trading balance sheet. It exists for the collective benefit of all its members, and the wider benefit of the world.”

Last year, 33 Commonwealth countries, led by Mauritius, voted to refer Britain to the international court of justice over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.

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The territory has been a contentious issue for years, with most of its 1,500 inhabitants deported so that the largest island, Diego Garcia, could be leased to the US for an airbase in 1971.

Thornberry said the government must listen to its Commonwealth partners and “correct the historic wrong done by our country to the people of the Chagos Islands”.

She added: “That is how I would urge the prime minister to approach this summit, and – in that same spirit – I would like her to start it by saying sorry to the other heads of government not just for the wrong done to the Chagos Islanders, but for the actions of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

“Back then, it was nothing less than our duty to take part in collective action against South Africa, and heed the urgent calls from our Commonwealth partners for the unified imposition of sanctions. But instead, the Thatcher government dismissed them.

“The last prime minister, David Cameron, apologised directly to Nelson Mandela in 2006 for his party’s refusal to impose sanctions, but that did not go far enough.

“I believe Theresa May and the Conservative government in Britain also owe an apology to the Commonwealth as a whole – and indeed Her Majesty The Queen – for ignoring the efforts of every other member 30 years ago to bring apartheid to an end.”