So, Ed Miliband has relented, and decided that after all it is not a good idea to build his green energy revolution on the back of slave labour in the Uighur region of China. Miliband had refused to back a Lords amendment to the Great British Energy Bill, first reported by Steerpike, which would have forced the putative government-owned green energy company to address the use of slave labour in its supply chains – Labour MPs were ordered to vote against it. Now the Energy and Climate Change Secretary has produced his own amendment to much the same effect.
It is a victory for campaigners against modern slavery and also for commonsense – it would be absurd to tolerate forced labour in solar panel supply chains while we have government bodies cringing over Britain’s involvement in the slave trade two centuries ago.
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