Miliband to block GB Energy from using solar panels linked to Chinese slave labour

Britain’s state-owned energy company will not be allowed to use solar panels linked to Chinese slave labour following a Government U-turn, according to reports.

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, will reportedly amend legislation to ensure slavery and human trafficking are not used in the supply chain of GB Energy.

It comes after Labour MPs last month blocked an amendment to the Great British Energy Bill to ensure solar panels used in Britain are free of slave labour.

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.

The clean energy market is dominated by China, partly because key raw materials for solar panels are abundant in the Xinjiang region of the country.

The region’s predominant Uyghur Muslim population has been subject to forced labour and other human rights violations.

Ministers are now set to order that solar panels, wind turbines and batteries must not contain material with links to slave labour.

Clean energy goal under threat

The change could make it harder for the Government to reach its goal of clean energy by 2030.

A Government source told The Times, which first reported the reversal, that ministers recognised “the strength of feeling” among colleagues.

The newspaper also said campaigners had presented case studies of solar panels which were linked to slave labour being installed on public buildings.

A government source told the newspaper: “We are committed to ensuring Great British Energy is a sector leader in this area, developing resilient, home-grown supply chains free from forced labour, and will bring forward proposals shortly on this.”

Andrew Bowie, the acting shadow energy secretary, told The Times the move would lead to a “real slowdown in the deployment of solar in the United Kingdom”.

He said: “It’s a belated realisation that the use of slave labour in the manufacturing of solar technology is real, but Labour really need to answer serious questions about whether their own self-imposed targets can be met without these solar panels, and what they’re going to do to address this.”

John Flesher, deputy director of the Conservative Environment Network, said the change of policy was “long overdue.”

But he went on to warn: “The government must now act to ensure that this knee-jerk U-turn doesn’t damage our environmental goals and the solar industry.”

Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham who had campaigned on the issue, told the newspaper: “This is the only way to make sure our transition to net zero is not carried through on the backs of slavery and exploitation.”

Luke de Pulford, the executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), said he was “delighted the government has listened and acted”.

He said: “We cannot build a just transition on the backs of Uyghur slaves. Since the 2015 Modern Slavery Act there have been two major changes to primary legislation on forced labour in supply chains. Lord Alton [of Liverpool], supported by IPAC MPs and civil society, was responsible for the amendments that led to both of them.

“We now need to ensure that the law has teeth, and that GB Energy doesn’t allow a single solar panel with slave-produced polysilicon, a single battery with slave-processed raw materials, or a wind turbine with slave-produced metals to reach our shores.”