Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, is welcoming UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s openness to a formal apology for the brutal transatlantic slave trade.

She was reacting to a Burnham opinion piece in the UK Guardian newspaper.

In his article, which came ahead of next week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua, Burnham says he is open to calls for Britain to formally apologise for its role in the transatlantic slave trade.

He expresses his personal sorrow and regret for the suffering caused by slavery, calling it a brutal and barbaric violation of people who were treated as property and worked to their deaths.

But he is ruling out financial reparations.

Mottley says she welcomes his acknowledgement of the brutality and his offer of structured dialogue.

She says Barbados will engage in good faith as a member of CARICOM.