Labour MPs have voted to block a ban on the Government buying solar panels where there is “credible evidence” of modern slavery in the supply process. [emphasis, links added]
Peers concerned that China has used forced labor to make the panels had amended legislation in an attempt to stop GB Energy, Britain’s new publicly owned energy company, from buying such products.
But ministers whipped Labour MPs to vote against the proposed amendment, which could mean that solar panels made by slaves end up being installed on public buildings.
Many solar panels bought under the Government’s plans to reach net zero electricity by 2030 will come from China, which manufactures around 80 per cent of the global supply.
The Xinjiang region, where there are widespread suspected human rights abuses against the Uyghur population, produces up to 40 percent of polysilicon, a vital component for the panels.
Ministers said they would take steps to ensure more stringent procurement rules, such as appointing a senior figure within GB Energy (GBE) to lead on examining “ethical supply chains and modern slavery”.
They also said that companies would have to demonstrate that they had undertaken their own assessment of their supply chains, but stopped short of supporting the Lords’ ban.
Critics, including [those] on the Labour benches, said that the Government should look to mirror laws in the US, where it is presumed that goods produced in Xinjiang are made with forced labor unless otherwise proven and are subject to an import ban.
The amendment was voted down by 314 votes to 198.
It had proposed that public money “must not be provided if there exists credible evidence of modern slavery in the energy supply chain of any company designated Great British Energy”.
No Labour MPs defied the Government by voting for the amendment, but several abstained, including prominent backbench critics such as Rachael Maskell and Alex Sobel, a member of the parliamentary joint committee on human rights.
Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy secretary, told the Commons: “It was on this day in 1807 that the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act received royal assent, on this day.
“And 218 years on, Labour MPs are going to be whipped to allow the state to directly fund imports of goods built by slave labor in China.”
Read rest at The Telegraph
