Another Commonwealth leader has discussed the future possibility of removing King Charles III as Head of State.
In an interview with BBC ahead of the Coronation, The Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Terrance Drew, said that his country “is not totally free” as long as the British Monarch serves as its Head of State.
This has sparked rumours that the Caribbean nation could be among the next countries to become a republic, after such expressions came in recent months from Jamaica and New Zealand’s leaders.
Prime Minister Drew won a snap election in August 2022, in a victory for the country’s Labour Party, which has traditionally held positions that go against having an unelected figure as Head of State.
Dr Drew has also called on the Monarchy to apologise for its historic links to the slave trade, adding that “acknowledging that…something wrong was done, […] and apologising for it, is a step in the right direction”.
Dr Drew is referencing the historic decision made by King Charles III to support research, conducted by the University of Manchester and Historic Royal Palaces, into the historical links between the British Monarchy and the transatlantic slave trade between the 17th and 18th centuries.
This support has been rendered concrete by the authorisation given by the King to fully open the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives for the time period in which researchers are interested in.
This decision by King Charles doesn’t come entirely as a surprise; the Palace has repeatedly expressed that the King takes the issue “profoundly seriously”.
His Majesty himself referenced the subject in a speech he gave in Rwanda last year during a meeting of Commonwealth leaders, saying: “I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact”.
This comes as a poll conducted on 11251 people across the Commonwealth Realms by former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft reveals that support of the Monarchy as an institution seems to be waning, with six out of the 14 Realms expressing their intent to become a Republic if a vote was offered today – including Australia and Canada.
However, the King doesn’t seem to be sad about it, with His Majesty himself saying in that same Rwanda speech: “I want to say clearly, as I have said before, that each member’s constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, is purely a matter for each member country to decide. The benefit of long life bring me the experience that arrangements such as these can change, calmly and without rancour”.
