Ministers have pledged to tackle forced labour in supply chains after asking Labour MPs to strip legal protections from the Great British Energy bill. The House of Commons voted 314 to 198 to reject a Lords amendment that would have prevented public money from being spent on solar panels or other materials where there is credible evidence of modern slavery.
No Labour MPs rebelled, but up to 92 abstained, including Marie Rimmer and Rachael Maskell. China dominates the solar market, and between 35% and 40% of polysilicon – a key raw material – is produced in Xinjiang, where the Uyghur population faces forced labour and arbitrary detention.
Energy security minister Michael Shanks announced that a senior individual in GB Energy would be appointed to lead on ethical supply chains, and that cross-Whitehall meetings involving the business department, the Foreign Office and the Home Office would be convened. He argued the bill was the wrong vehicle for such changes and pointed to existing provisions in the Procurement Act.
Critics, including former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, said the Procurement Act only applies if a company has been convicted of modern slavery in the UK or abroad, and that China would not act against its own firms. Labour MPs Sarah Champion, Marie Rimmer and Rachael Maskell called for stronger measures, with Maskell urging ministers to switch the burden of proof onto companies.
Labour peer Helena Kennedy, who sponsored the original amendment, said: “I hope the government has a rethink… we cannot continue to purchase solar panels which are the product of slave labour.” Cross-bench peer David Alton, who drafted the amendment, said he would seek to re-insert it when the bill returns to the Lords.
