Labour should make woke reparations to apologise for British Empire, declares an official party report
New embarrassment for Starmer who wants to convince voters he’s a f lag-waving patriot!
SIR KEIR Starmer’s troubles deepened last night after an official party report said a Labour Government should make ‘woke’ payments to countries once ruled by the British Empire to apologise for colonialism.
Allies of the Labour leader immediately sought to distance him from the proposals, blaming them on rogue hard-Left followers of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
The report, Remaking Of The British State: For The Many, Not The Few, argues the UK should make reparation payments and ‘an unreserved apology to all of the countries of the world that the Empire invaded and negatively impacted’.
The 234-page policy document, which was published last week by Sean Patrick Griffin, the party’s external governance officer, threatens SirKeir’ s plans to rebrand the party around a patriotic agenda. Yet the report carries a foreword signed ‘Leader of the Opposition’s Office, London’ and is subtitled ‘Produced on behalf of the Labour Party’.
It also calls for:
● The abolition of trade union laws, which would lead to the return of flying pickets and general strikes;
● The disestablishment of the Church of England;
● The House of Lords to be abolished and replaced by ‘the Senate of Nations and Regions’;
● Restrictions on Britain’s ability to declare war by requiring military activity to pass a vote in both houses of Parliament;
● Abolition of ‘all of the trappings and add-ons of the Monarchy’.
It was previously reported that the document also seeks to scrap knighthoods and other honours in favour of a ‘civic award’.
The document says: ‘ Socialists should seek to reorder the British state and hardwire the constitution in favour of socialist objectives. This must be a central plank of the Labour Party’s vision to transform the UK.’
The paper comes ahead of a UK-wide constitutional commission which Sir Keir has already announced. Last night, one of his allies said: ‘ The last leadership were always getting reports like this written in order to keep their friends happy. Fortunately, that’s not Labour’s approach any more.’
The document caps a torrid fortnight for the Labour leader.
His poll ratings have slumped, he has had to apologise to Boris Johnson for making false accusations in the Commons, and has had to deal with the fallout after The Mail on Sunday revealed t hat Shadow Attorney General had described Covid as a ‘gift that keeps on giving’ for lawyers.
The reparations proposal follows mounting campaigns from the Left to revisit Britain’s past, including the toppling of the statue of slave trader Sir Edward Colston in Bristol and the National Trust review of its properties’ links to slavery.
Arguing that British taxpayers’ money should be sent abroad to atone for colonialism, the report says: ‘In recognition of the past wrongdoings of the British state, the new constitution should make an unreserved apology to all of the countries of the world that the Empire invaded and negatively impacted.
‘ In addition, the British state should set up a reparations fund as part of the constitution, which offers financial assistance to communities across the world that can show loss and detriment as a result of the actions of the British state.’
It adds that payments would come if ‘the British state owed the claimants in question a duty of care’ and if a failure of that duty could directly be shown to have caused a demonstrable loss.
A Labour source said last night: ‘This report was commissioned by the previous Labour leadership. It does not reflect party policy.’