From Grenfell to Bloody Sunday, the UK government’s formal apologies

As leaders gathered at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in the Pacific nation of Samoa this week, they hoped that the UK government and King Charles might use the summit as an opportunity to issue an apology for Britain’s colonial past and discuss reparatory justice. While their concerns were acknowledged, the UK stressed that it would not pay reparations, and while Keir Starmer called the slave trade “abhorrent”, the government is yet to make a formal apology. King Charles acknowledged “painful aspects” of Britain’s past but stopped short of saying sorry. Here are some apologies the British government has made in the past: Grenfell Tower In September, months after becoming prime minister, Keir Starmer apologised “on behalf of the British state” to victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and their families, seven years after the disaster. In June 2017, 72 people, 18 of them children, died in the fire. A public inquiry found the national and local government responsible for the catastrophe, as well as regulators and businesses. “It should never have happened,” Starmer said in parliament. “The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty, to protect you and your loved ones, the people that we are...