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Ed Miliband is facing demands to introduce new measures to stop Britain using solar panels made by the Uighurs, an oppressed Muslim minority in western China, as part of his race towards net zero.
A cross-party group of peers has called for the energy secretary to introduce safeguards that prevent UK renewable energy companies from importing Chinese components made by slave labour.
It comes as the House of Lords debates Labour’s flagship legislation to establish Great British Energy, a publicly-owned company that will help deliver the government’s green transition.
Senior parliamentarians are concerned about the supply chains of renewable energy companies, many of which rely on products from China. In particular, there are questions around solar panels, which often contain polysilicon. Nearly half of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon is produced in the Xinjiang region of China where more than 2.6 million people, mostly from the Uighur ethnic group, have been subjected to forced labour in detention camps.
Academics, politicians and human rights groups have long warned that forced labour is rife there, including in the sourcing of polysilicon, with 11 companies in the region identified as being engaged in forced labour transfers.
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To prevent UK energy supply chains being tainted by forced labour, a group of peers has now tabled an amendment to the bill, which, if approved, would prevent any public funds being given to companies involved with GB Energy where there is “credible evidence of modern slavery in the supply chain”.
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Luke de Pulford, the executive director of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: “Labour has gone from an admirably strong position on the persecution of Uighurs to energy policies which facilitate it. It’s an absolute 180 in policy terms. Now the chancellor is in Beijing meeting with China’s génocidaires.
“Whatever the economic imperative, the consciences of politicians across both Houses should not permit the rush to net zero to be achieved on the back of Uighur slavery.”
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