Keir Starmer has said it is important to focus on "today's challenges" rather than "spending all of our time and energy on reparations". Momentum is growing for a debate about transatlantic slavery reparations, as the prime minister joins other leaders in Samoa at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). But Starmer says, "I think we should look forwards, not backwards". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Look, I think we should look forward, not backwards.
00:02That doesn't mean we don't want to talk about what happened.
00:05They also say a very present issue
00:06is resilience and the climate challenge and trade.
00:10And I think the focus for me, the priority if you like,
00:14is to look at what are today's challenges?
00:16How do we help with some of those challenges
00:19for the Commonwealth family?
00:21Many of them are concerned to know
00:23how international institutions can help them
00:25with those challenges.
00:26How do we talk and deal with trade,
00:28but there's a huge advantage of being a Commonwealth member.
00:31And I think actually by focusing on those issues,
00:35we can make material impact in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years,
00:39whatever it may be.
00:41Whereas if we spend all of our time and energy
00:43simply talking about reparation,
00:46we won't address those issues.
00:47So for me, it's about priorities, about focus.
00:50And there's a real keenness here
00:51to talk about the forward-looking issues.