Labour MPs block ban on Chinese solar panels ‘made by slaves'
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 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 labour 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 labour in China.'
'A ridiculous position'
He added that the amendment would have sought 'to protect some of the most oppressed people in the world' and 'to ensure that our net zero objectives, whatever your view on them, won't be built on the back of slave labour, on the backs of the Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang and elsewhere'.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who is sanctioned by China, told the Commons: 'Many in this House will not stop until the Government faces up to one thing and one thing only: not one life through modern slavery is worth a lower cost of a solar panel.
'And that should be an epitaph of this ridiculous position the Government is in.'
Michael Shanks, an energy minister, told the Commons: 'I want this House to be in no doubt that this government is absolutely committed to confronting and tackling modern slavery in energy supply chains.'
He added: 'We do expect Great British Energy to take a leading role in ensuring that any companies in which it invests can demonstrate their own assessment of their own supply chains for exposure to forced labour.
'I can assure the house that with these tools, GBE will tackle modern slavery head-on and where there is credible evidence that of involvement anywhere in the supply chains, GBE will not only make sure that it does everything within its power to combat the scourge of modern slavery but also pull up the standards expected for the wider UK energy sector in the process.'
A £200 million investment by the Government-funded budget for GBE announced on Friday, will place solar panels on school roofs and on NHS hospitals to try and save money on energy bills.
A minister insisted that there would be no material in government-purchased solar panels made by slaves.
'We need to see action'
Matthew Pennycook, a housing minister, when asked if he could guarantee materials would not have been 'provided by slaves in China ', told Times Radio: 'Absolutely.'
He said: 'I understand the concern that people have out there about the use of the Uyghur region. What I'm saying I suppose is we need to see action across the whole of the energy industry and that's why we're working across government to tackle the issue of forced labour in supply chains.'
A 2023 report from the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University said: 'In 2020, China produced 75pc of the global supply of solar-grade polysilicon, with manufacturers in the Uyghur region accounting for over 45pc of the total global production.
'There is overwhelming evidence that major producers and manufacturers have actively recruited and employed 'transferred surplus [slave] labour' from rural villages.'
In December, The Telegraph reported that tomato and pepper products sold in British supermarkets were secretly produced using forced labour in China, an investigation has found.
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