Global calls for reparations are only growing louder. Why is Britain still digging in its heels? | Hilary Beckles

The issue is on all our minds at this week's Commonwealth summit in Samoa. Now is Keir Starmer's chance to address it

• Hilary Beckles is chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission

Downing Street has said reparations for the British enslavement of black people in the Caribbean are not on the agenda at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting this week in the South Pacific. And Keir Starmer's Labour government has asserted that it will not - now or ever - participate in the payment of any form of reparation.

On the first matter, nothing could be further from the truth. Reparations are in the mouths and on the minds of all participants, and the formal agenda does not determine the real agenda. It is just a conciliatory framework for the moment, and does not reflect what in fact is a supportive movement.