Ed Miliband’s drive to Net Zero has made him blind to human cost of going green – here’s the stark reality
AS Ed Miliband drives his rush to Net Zero in the UK, spending billions purchasing solar panel arrays and wind turbines, it becomes clear that he places the timetable of his roll-out above all other issues.
Don’t get me wrong, we all want to protect our children and grandchildren from the worst effects of climate change.
But let’s get real — going green must not mean going blind to the human cost.
China’s solar arrays, which Miliband will be carpeting the countryside with, are and will be made using slave labour.
The same politicians who talk endlessly about ethics, equality and decarbonisation are planning to turn a blind eye to state-sponsored slavery of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in China, all in the pursuit of Miliband’s green industrial strategy.
This fact has been obvious to him and his team since the first day of the new Labour Government.
That is because successive British governments have known that the Chinese Communist Party uses slave labour as both a punishment to those they hate and a very useful price tool to undercut the free market.
After all, what powers the solar panels soon to be on your neighbour’s roof, or local office block, is polysilicon — a crucial component in the technology.
The reality is that more than 90 per cent of the world’s polysilicon is made in China, and a huge proportion of that is made in Xinjiang.
This is the region where Uyghurs have been subjected to mass detention, surveillance and forced labour on an industrial scale.
So let me be clear. China sends hundreds of thousands of people — mostly men — into guarded labour camps where they work for no pay under the brutal rule of guards and overseers.
This while their wives and daughters are forcibly sterilised and their children are taken away into “re-education camps”.
Academic and human rights expert Laura Murphy, who has spent years researching the Uyghur region, puts it plainly: the solar industry is “entangled in a system of coercion”.
Her 2021 report, In Broad Daylight, documents evidence that Uyghurs are being forced into solar supply chains under the guise of “labour transfers”.
“Labour transfers” — that’s Orwellian doublespeak used by a Chinese regime accused of committing genocide in Xinjiang by the UK Parliament, the US and many other democratic parliaments.
And the hand of the Chinese Communist Party stretches far beyond China.
‘System of coercion’
I am sanctioned by them, as are some other British politicians, for alerting the world to this Uyghur genocide.
And it isn’t just the Uyghurs who are in slave labour camps. Many others are across China.
For example, we know that some 250,000 Tibetan men are languishing in forced labour camps as well.
All this is known to Miliband.
Here’s the stark truth: without UK legislative action now, far too much of that green energy will be built on the backs of slaves. It’s that simple
After all, he’s front and centre in the plan for Net Zero. He’s been busy pushing the “Great British Energy” plan, promising clean electricity by 2030 and a surge in solar and wind power.
But here’s the stark truth: without UK legislative action now, far too much of that green energy will be built on the backs of slaves. It’s that simple.
The reality is that Miliband had the option to deal with the problem.
A House of Lords amendment to his Great British Energy Bill, passed by all parties, would have ensured that slave-made products could not be brought in by the state-owned “Great British Energy company”.
The immediate effect would have been to clean up our supply chains.
The amendment, tabled by fellow members in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Lord Alton and Baroness Kennedy, would also have stopped tax money being funnelled into companies where there is “credible evidence” of forced labour.
Why would anyone of right mind object to this? It’s hard to imagine a lower bar.
Yet the Government did just that. Labour and Ed Miliband whipped their MPs to strip the amendment from the Bill. This represents a huge about-turn for Labour.
Waking up
When the Conservatives were in power, I worked to try to amend the 2021 Trade Act to make it illegal to do a trade deal with a genocidal state.
At that time, while in opposition, Labour were very strong on Beijing’s human rights abuses.
Ironically, as we weaken on this, other countries are waking up.
Surely it is time for Miliband and the Government to do the decent thing and act on this abuse of human rights in pursuit of cheaper products
The US passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans the import of goods made with forced labour.
Unless companies can prove their supply chains are clean, they face significant penalties.
The US has even reversed the burden of proof, presuming goods are tainted with slavery unless proven otherwise.
Surely it is time for Miliband and the Government to do the decent thing and act on this abuse of human rights in pursuit of cheaper products.
If not, Miliband will come to be seen as a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.