Labour has been forced to back-track on a highly controversial plan to use “slave-made” Chinese solar panel components after an overwhelming outcry.
Ed Miliband will now require GB Energy to ensure that “slavery and human trafficking is not taking place” in its supply chain.
This change comes after Labour was branded “shameful in the extreme” last month when the party instructed its MPs to vote down an anti-slavery amendment to the Great British Energy Bill.
As a result, solar panels, wind turbines and batteries containing materials suspected of being produced through forced labour will be prohibited from use by GB Energy.
A Government source told The Times that the change came after “recognition of the strength of feeling” among the 92 MPs who abstained in the previous vote.
Last month, Tory energy spokesman Andrew Bowie called it a “day of shame” for Labour after MPs voted 314 to 198 to reject the anti-slavery amendment.
Ed Miliband meets China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang
GETTY
And now, the ban has been labelled a “long-overdue move” by John Flesher of the Conservative Environment Network.
Despite several Labour MPs criticising the Bill and 92 abstaining, none rebelled when it came to a vote.
Miliband had previously said installing the panels would save the public sector money on electricity bills.
He had conceded that some panels would come from China, which promptly raised concerns about their origins and manufacturing conditions.
China is responsible for around 80 per cent of the global supply of solar panels, while its Xinjiang region produces between 35 and 40 per cent of the world’s polysilicon, a key component of solar panels.
LATEST ON LABOUR’S CHINA TIES:
Tory China hawk Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned last month that Labour would be ‘turning a blind eye to slavery’ if they voted through the Bill
PA
More than a million Uighur people have been detained in Xinjiang – with evidence they are used as forced labour.
Campaigners argue that up to 97 per cent of solar arrays available to buy within the UK contain materials from Xinjiang.
As a result, Tory China hawk Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned last month that Labour would be “turning a blind eye to slavery” if they voted through the Bill.
“It’s the first test for the Labour Government: which side of this do you stand?” he asked.
More than a million Uyghur people have been detained in Xi Jinping’s Xinjiang – with evidence they are used as forced labour
PA
“You used to stand on the side of anti-slavery, but by turning a blind eye, the Government will have put themselves in line with other countries who believe it is okay to turn a blind eye to slavery.
“The choice will be pretty binary: We either think it doesn’t matter if there is slave labour in the supply chain in this particular instance on net zero, or we do.
“And if we do believe there shouldn’t be slave labour in any product, and particularly not the net zero stuff, then the answer is we have to act and say that we’re not going to do it.”
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “No industry in the UK should rely on forced labour, and through Great British Energy we have a clear plan to build the supply chains needed to support a new era of clean homegrown power, bringing jobs and investment.”
