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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Sources say that Miliband was briefed in mid-2023 of the problem with solar energy supply chains, while the energy minister, Lord Hunt, told peers last month that the government recognised the “tension” inherent in buying solar panels from China and was “looking at this very carefully”.
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”.
The amendment has been put forward by the crossbencher Lord Alton of Liverpool; the Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, a distinguished human rights barrister; the Conservatives’ Lord Blencathra, a minister under Margaret Thatcher; and the bishop of St Albans.
Sources said they were confident the amendment would be backed by opposition peers in the Lords, although they fear that Labour MPs will be instructed to vote against it when the legislation returns to the Commons.
Last year, Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham and chair of the international development select committee, also tabled an amendment to ensure GB Energy and the green transition upheld human rights. In October, she told MPs she had “grave concerns that if we charge ahead with our net zero transition without safeguards in place, we will knowingly be doing that on the backs of those in slavery”.
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She withdrew the amendment after Miliband promised to relaunch a solar task force that would examine supply chains. Since then, however, doubts have been expressed about its ability to properly scrutinise claims of forced labour.
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.”
