Labour accused of turning ‘blind eye to slavery’ over solar panels made in China

MPs likely to be whipped against move to add protections, as government says it is already taking action on risk of forced labour

Ministers have been accused of turning a “blind eye to slavery” by ordering Labour MPs to remove legal protections to stop money being spent by state-owned Great British Energy on solar panels manufactured by forced labour in China.

The protections were added to the government bill in the House of Lords via an amendment from the cross-bench peer David Alton, which said the new body must not spend money on solar or other materials where supply chains had “credible evidence of modern slavery”.

But Labour MPs are likely to be whipped on Tuesday to strip out the amendment, though some concessions may be forthcoming, with the government saying it was already taking action on the issue with an existing solar taskforce chaired by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary.

On Tuesday morning the housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, said he could already guarantee solar panels used by the government would not have been made by Uyghur people in China.

“Absolutely,” he told Times Radio. “I understand the concern that people have out there about the use of particularly 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.”

Pressed again to give a yes or no answer, he said: “I think I’ve answered very clearly, we’re taking action across the whole of government to tackle the issue of forced labour in supply chains.”

But Labour and Tory critics of China in the Commons said it was shameful that the legal protections would be removed from the bill. The former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the government was asking Labour backbenchers to “turn and look away when slave products come”.

“It’s the first test for the Labour government: which side of this do you stand? 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 OK to turn a blind eye to slavery,” he told the Daily Mail.

No 10 said on Monday that the government was committed to tackling modern slavery within the system and said that would be more effective than upholding bans on particular companies. A spokesperson said GBE was “expected to be a first-in-class example of that approach”.

“We’re absolutely focused on tackling human rights abuses and modern slavery in supply chains. We need to take a whole of government and society approach and place victims and survivors at the centre of this work.

“We want to combat human rights abuses like modern slavery across the whole energy industry. We think that will be more effective than applying measures on a company-by-company basis.”

Miliband, who recently returned from a visit to China, last week announced a £200m fund for solar panels on schools and hospitals. He said it was still unviable for solar panels to be manufactured in Britain for a rollout of this scale.

Cover photo:  On Tuesday the housing minister said he could already guarantee solar panels used by the government would not have been made by Uyghur people in China. Photograph: Washington Imaging/Alamy