Social commentator Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline has branded the United Kingdom’s (UK) Opposition Leader, Kemi Badenoch, as the new polemicist and apologist for her take on reparations. Photo: Internet Source

Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline during the November 3, 2026, airing of his show Honestly Speaking on ZBVI 780 AM. Photo: Facebook

Social commentator Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline has accused the United Kingdom’s (UK) Opposition Leader, Kemi Badenoch, of trying to be more British than King Charles III (left) and UK Prime Minister Andrew M. Burnham (right) with her take on slavery and reparations. Photo: Internet Source

During a visit to the UK in July 2026, Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Sir Hilary Beckles said the commission wants colonialism uprooted from the Virgin Islands. Photo: Francis Kokoroko/Reuters

On October 31, 2026, Mrs Badenoch took to her X account ahead of the 28th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which took place in Antigua and Barbuda from November 1 to 4, 2026. 

“We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade,” she wrote, adding, “If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?”

Trying to be more British than PM Burnham & King Charles III

She also said British taxpayers today should not be held financially responsible for things that occurred “generations before any of us were born”. 

“She’s the new polemicist and apologist, saying that Prime Minister Andy should not even be thinking about entertaining any language, any public notion of an apology for what they call the Transatlantic SlaveTrade,” Mr Skelton-Cline said on Honestly Speaking on November 3, 2026. 

According to him, Mrs Badenoch is suggesting that no consideration should be given to offering an apology or reparations and that bygones should be bygones. 

“This is a black woman from Nigeria. You see how messed up our minds are. So that the sitting Prime Minister and brother King Charles…who are open to having a conversation and discussion, in hopes that they can come up with a language for an apology…and Kemi is here trying to be more British than they are and arguing such a sick and sordid position that an apology should not be considered.”

The sin of Sister Kemi

Pastor Skelton-Cline said this is unbelievable and an example of minds being politically molested. 

“It is amazing the miles we will travel and the ways in which we will betray who we are and betray what our foreparents have done and fought for and what they have been through, simply to be accepted in this white supremacist culture, and that is the sin of Sister Kemi; she don’t understand; she has mistaken true education and has opted for indoctrination.”

He also pointed out that the UK only completed reparation payments to former slave owners and their descendants in 2015. 

“How, in good faith and how, in God’s name, can you find it so difficult to contemplate that there is a place for an apology, there is a place for curative and reparative justice to take place, but argue against the self-interest of your own people; unbelievable.”

CARICOM’s support for reparative justice for VI

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) established the CARICOM Reparations Commission in 2013, which pursues reparatory justice for native genocide and the transatlantic slave trade. 

Decolonisation was officially integrated into the revised CARICOM Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, asserting that the Virgin Islands, an Associate Member of CARICOM, must be returned or decolonised by the UK. 

During a visit to the UK in July 2026, Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Sir Hilary Beckles said, “We object to the fact that in the Virgin Islands, our people cannot make fundamental decisions because they have to consult with the British governor and consult with Downing Street to make decisions … and we want to have it uprooted as part of the enlightenment that we’re calling for – democracy, freedom, sovereignty for everyone.”