Kemi Badenoch has said Andy Burnham’s consideration of a formal apology for Britain’s role in the slave trade is a “navel-gazing distraction”.

The Tory leader said slavery was “an evil in which people from every continent and region participated” and argued the Commonwealth should be “looking forwards, not backwards” at a summit in Antigua and Barbuda next week.

She pointed to the intervention by Sir Tony Blair, who in 2006 expressed “deep sorrow and regret” over the UK ’s involvement in the slave trade but stopped short of a full apology, in arguing that Britain has already confronted its history.

It comes after the Prime Minister said he was “open” to calls for an official apology on behalf of the state in an article for the Guardian before he flies to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Caribbean .

In a lengthy post on social media, Mrs Badenoch said: “We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain’s…