Firm behind photo voltaic farm is allegedly ‘linked to Chinese slave staff’
Ed Miliband is facing fresh anger over his approval of three huge solar farms, with new allegations that some panels could be made with ‘slave labour’ in China.
The Energy Security Secretary was already under fire for risking Britain’s food security by giving the go-ahead to the renewable energy projects, including one covering 2,500 acres of farm land on the Cambridgeshire/Suffolk border.
Now he has also been blasted by a senior Tory about the risk of human rights abuses in the Chinese production of the panels for another one of the schemes he has approved, the 2,000-acre Mallard Pass energy farm in Lincolnshire.
Alicia Kearns, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the last Parliament, said: ‘I am appalled Ed Miliband has approved Mallard Pass, despite the company behind the project, Canadian Solar, being named specifically as one of the worst examples of companies using slave labour. We can’t go green on blood labour.’
Ed Miliband is facing fresh anger over his approval of three huge solar farms, with new allegations that some panels could be made with ‘slave labour’ in China
If built the Mallard Pass solar farm will stretch over 2,000 acres across Lincolnshire and Rutland (file image)
More than 3,000 residents have signed a petition opposing the solar farm
Alicia Kearns (pictured), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, shared on social media a letter she had written last week on the topic to Mr Miliband along with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Foreign Secretary David Lammy
She shared on social media a letter she had written last week on the topic to Mr Miliband along with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Ms Kearns, a former member of the China Research Group of MPs, told the ministers the ‘exposure of the UK solar industry’s supply chains to Uighur forced labour is well-documented’.
She said that the US has already passed a law, the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which requires any company importing goods from the Xinjiang region to certify that they were not made by the large numbers of Muslims feared to be detained in camps and forced to work in factories there.
The EU also recently approved a ban on imports made using forced labour. ‘The UK is rapidly becoming a global outlier, and dumping ground, for dirty solar,’ Ms Kearns warned. She said a cross-party group of 43 MPs and 32 human rights organisations has called for import controls in the UK.
Ms Kearns said Canadian Solar has been singled out as an ‘offending company’ in a study by Sheffield Hallam University. The firm was contacted for comment. Last year it insisted it ‘strongly condemned the illegal practice of forced labour’ and was ‘confident’ in its supply chain processes to ‘prevent us dealing with companies that may be involved in forced labour’.
