Keir: Cambridges sent ‘odd’ mixed messages on tour
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Caribbean tour was criticised by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer yesterday.
He picked on the royals’ decision to ride at a military parade in the back of the same open-top Land Rover used by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in the 1960s – calling it a “bit odd”.
He also saidWilliam might have “gone further” in condemning slavery, after he came under pressure to apologise for Britain and the Royal Family’s involvement in the slave trade centuries ago – and for the Queen to pay reparations.
The second in line to the throne stopped short of that but denounced slavery as “abhorrent” and said “it should never have happened”.
Sir Keir acknowledged the pair were trying to communicate a “difficult” message at a time when links to the monarchy are being reconsidered in the three countries they toured – Belize, The Bahamas and Jamaica.
He said: “William and Kate went on an important trip with important messages, including messages about the changing nature of the Commonwealth going forwards, and that is difficult.”
Assessing the Duke’s words on slavery, he added: “I think that he may go further in the future.”
The Labour leader emphasised that the Commonwealth should modernise to strengthen bonds with the UK.
But he had doubts aboutWilliam and Kate’s ride in a jeep Princess Margaret rolled out at Jamaica’s independence in 1962 – and that the Queen and Philip also sat in on visits in 1966 and 1994.
He said: “What William and Kate [did]…is say: ‘We’re looking to the future’, but that all harked of the past, so I didn’t quite see how that actually fit that well with the aim of their trip.”
Royal sources claimed the Jamaican government’s “number one” request had been for the Cambridges to take to the Land Rover at the parade, above, meaning the couple had felt they had to do so despiteWilliam’s own misgivings.