MEASURES that would have banned companies which use forced labour from getting backing from GB Energy could be overturned by Labour this week.
Labour MPs are reportedly being whipped to vote down a Lords amendment aimed at banning companies complicit in modern slavery from benefitting from state funds, The Guardian reports.
The UK Government is said to be concerned the measure could sour relations with China, where Uyghur Muslims are forced to work by the country’s government to make solar panels. The country dominates the solar panels market.
Westminster’s business and trade committee has previously raised concerns about “slave labour” being used in China, with a recent report warning: “It is well evidenced that the renewable sector is heavily dependent on companies sourcing from areas like Xinjiang in China, and that forced labour is endemic in the region through involuntary labour transfer schemes.
“The Great British Energy Bill provides an ideal vehicle to ensure that the green transition is not built on the back of contemporary slaves.”
Labour backbencher Alex Sobel will attempt to bring forward his own amendment which would allow the anti-slavery commissioner to determine whether the threshold of credible evidence has been met to prevent firms from getting GB Energy support.
Sobel told The Guardian: “The UK has been crystal clear that the UK will not tolerate slave-made goods and appreciates more must be done to root them out. Great British Energy provides us with the opportunity to not only pursue our green transition but bolster our national security, but only if we are to reduce our dependence on China.
“Ensuring our solar supply chains are free from slavery would also see the UK take a leading position on human rights, as a force for good.
“We have listened to the government arguments and tabled an amendment which would provide a practical solution to this issue, assuring we are aligned with actions in Europe and the US.”
In opposition Labour backed moves to declare China’s actions in Xinjiang, home of the country’s Muslim minority, as genocide.
But in a recent speech, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he wanted to “turbo-charge the relationships which will generate the greatest returns on investment for UK plc in the medium-term. At the top of that list stands the EU, China and the United States of America”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also visited the country since taking office.
A statement from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a global group of parliamentarians critical of the Asian superpower, published late last year said that Uyghurs were forced to surrender their farms and pushed into wage labour.
The statement added: “Between 2001 and 2021, land-use transfer shares in Xinjiang grew nearly 50-fold, indicating the staggering scale at which minorities were rendered landless and then pushed into state-mandated work.”
Labour were approached for comment.
