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Labour MPs faced fierce criticism after voting down legislation aimed at preventing the government from purchasing solar panels manufactured using forced labour. The controversial decision saw Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s administration directing party members to reject an amendment that would have blocked GB Energy from acquiring solar panels where substantial evidence of modern slavery exists, particularly in China’s Xinjiang region.

The amendment’s defeat, with 314 votes against and 198 in favour, highlighted the government’s prioritization of green energy initiatives over human rights concerns. Instead of implementing an outright ban, the administration proposed alternative measures, including the potential creation of an oversight role within GB Energy to monitor ethical supply chains.

The vote proceeded despite emotional appeals from Holocaust survivor Dorit Oliver-Wolff, who drew parallels between historical atrocities and current human rights violations. In her letter to the government, she wrote: “It is with the Great British Energy Bill that an unmissable opportunity is presented to your government – to show the world that the UK will not become a dumping ground for modern slavery.”

She continued: “I have spent my life sharing my story, hoping that ‘never again’ would become more than a platitude. But I have seen how ‘never again’ too often means ‘again and again’. The renewable energy sector is stained with the blood of Uyghur forced labour.”

Evidence of forced labour in China’s solar panel industry is substantial. A 2021 Bitter Winter report revealed that China produces over 80 percent of global polysilicon, a key solar panel component, predominantly in Xinjiang. Four factories in the region, situated near Uyghur concentration camps, produce approximately half of the world’s polysilicon supply.

Shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie drew attention to the historical significance of the vote, noting: “It was on this day in 1807 that the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act received royal assent… And 218 years on, Labour MPs are going to be whipped to allow the state to directly fund imports of goods built by slave labour in China.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has faced Chinese sanctions for his advocacy of Uyghur rights, declared: “Many in this House will not stop until the Government faces up to one thing and one thing only: not one life through modern slavery is worth a lower cost of a solar panel.”