King Charles III will not personally accept a petition from the Jamaican government as it intensifies its campaign for Britain to pay £7.6billion in slavery reparations. A Jamaican delegation, led by culture minister Olivia Grange, travelled to London hoping to present the petition directly to the King as Jamaica's head of state, but Buckingham Palace has confirmed this will not happen in person, both because Charles is at Balmoral for his summer break and because petitions of this nature are not correctly served on the monarch directly. The move underscores the UK government's continued refusal to pay reparations, even as Commonwealth nations step up pressure over Britain's historical role in slavery.

The petition asks three questions to be referred to the Privy Council: whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was legal under English law, whether it breached international law, and whether Britain now bears a legal duty to provide redress. It points to the fact that when Britain abolished slavery in 1833, it compensated slave owners rather than enslaved people, taking out a £20million loan — equivalent to 40 per cent of the Treasury's annual income at the time — which was only fully repaid in 2015. Buckingham Palace said the Jamaican representatives would instead be received by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for bilateral talks, while Downing Street reiterated that the government will not pay reparations.