Burnham has dragged the King into party-political slavery debate

In Antigua, the King and Queen arrived at church dressed in their Sunday best, ready to attempt to charm the Commonwealth. A pocket square in the colours of the flag for him; a beaded bracelet made by a local jeweller for her. The schedule showed a church service, followed by an independence day celebration and a spot of cricket. Back in Britain, political parties divided sharply over the only topic in town for this Commonwealth summit: slave trade reparations .

Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, has said he is considering making an official apology . Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said her answer to the question of reparations was no, and urged the Commonwealth to look forward. Reform’s Nigel Farage said Britain should “take on the Left-wing governments peddling their tired old talking points”. Campaigners, inevitably, made immediate hay from the fact that an apology should logically lead to financial reparations.

Mrs Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of putting the King under “pressure” . The King, here at the centre of the Commonwealth debate in person, has been drawn into politics. Worse, from a palace perspective: it has turned to party politics. Buckingham Palace was not taken unawares by Mr Burnham’s statement. There had been discussions, in the lead-up to the trip, and conversations within the “golden triangle”: the triad of the King’s principal private secretary, the Prime Minister’s principal private secretary and the Cabinet Secretary.

They had settled on Mr Burnham’s announcement, via the Guardian newspaper, being made on the King’s “down day”, after he had finished a one-night state visit to Guyana. It hit the headlines as the 77-year-old King, who is still having cancer treatment, worked from his temporary home in Antigua but had no public engagements. It made “logical sense”, said one source, for an apparent change in government policy to go out when it had less risk of overshadowing the King’s work overseas for that same government.

Some fear it overshadowed it anyway. The King, who now has the Queen by his side, has three days left of this Caribbean trip, all of which will be spent in Antigua and Barbuda as Commonwealth leaders gather. He will speak at CHOGM in his role as the head of the Commonwealth, in which he will walk that famous “diplomatic tightrope” – to be sorry but not apologise. The protests that he was already facing from reparations campaigners, who have their placards ready to go, will now be amplified.

The situation, sources point out, is “complex”. The King cannot have a view on the Government’s decisions and has not expressed one. But in the Commonwealth, it is his name above the door and – on these islands at least – it is King Charles III to whom people look for both words and action.a At St John’s Pentecostal House of Restoration in Antigua, an Anglican Bishop preached about the Commonwealth’s “shared prosperity” as leaders listened from the pews.

Ernest Flemming, the bishop of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba, said: “True partnership requires mutual respect, it requires listening, it requires fairness.” He told the congregation, including the King and Queen, cricketer Sir Viv Richards and Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda: “A genuine partnership does not ask what can I take; it asks what can we build together?” The King, wearing a colourful tie once belonging to his friend, the late comedian Barry Humphries and given to him by his widow, held a private audience with Mr Browne later in the day.

With the Queen by his side for the first time on this trip, he went on to watch the annual ceremonial parade at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, marking 45 years of the country’s independence. On Sunday evening local time, the King was due to toss a commemorative coin at an exhibition cricket match, in which Caribbean leaders will compete against Heads of Government from the wider Commonwealth joined by cricketers Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Curtly Ambrose, David Gower and Sir Richie Richardson.

On Tuesday, the King will address CHOGM. Mr Burnham, by then, will be entering into discussions with Commonwealth leaders about historic slave trade reparations. It is time, campaigners urge, for him to put Britain’s money where his mouth is.