United Kingdom

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18107420

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The founder of British clothing brand All Saints has said he would be “horrified” if fast-fashion firm Shein is allowed to list in London, describing the Chinese-founded company as the “worst” offender in the sector.

“Fast fashion really has changed the whole industry, because it’s now like a race to the bottom… The planet cannot afford it,” Stuart Trevor, who founded All Saints in 1994, says.

With the average consumer purchasing double the amount of clothes as 15 years ago and keeping it for half as long, emissions from the industry have skyrocketed.

“Everybody’s got wardrobes full of clothes that they don’t wear,” Trevor said. “We’re never going to stop people from buying clothes, but it would be better if we could encourage people to create longer-lasting items of clothes.”

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The Singapore-based firm Shein is currently aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) in London, although the IPO is facing signifcant scrutiny from MPs and human rights groups.

Leigh Day, the lawyers for Stop Uyghur Genocide (SUG), delivered a dossier of evidence alleging supply chain abuses to Shein’s senior lawyer for EMEA, Yinan Zhu, prior to an appearance before MPs last week.

The dossier is said to show “clear, identifiable links between cotton production in the Uyghur region and forced labour”.

Shein was widely criticised for its responses to MPs’ questions, where it declined to answer questions over the company’s supply chain. The firm’s representative, Yinan Zhu, asked if she could write to the committee following the hearing.

“Their performance at that inquiry was quite shocking… but it was also a bit of a sigh of relief,” Trevor said. “Hopefully now [the listing] won’t happen.”

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Downing Street has refused to say whether new City Minister Emma Reynolds is able to make decisions about the UK's dealings with China.

Reynolds was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer after the resignation of Tulip Siddiq amid growing pressure over an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh.

Questions have been raised about whether Reynolds has a conflict of interest, because she was a director of public affairs at a banking trade group involved in lobbying for fewer restrictions on Chinese businesses.

The prime minister's official spokesman repeatedly declined to say whether Reynolds' background meant she had to recuse herself, or step back, from decisions about China.

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The UK’s Labour Party is caught in the crosshairs of another controversy, as high-ranking politicians have come in support of Chinese “super embassy” plans, defying warnings from intelligence agencies and protests from residents.

In a recent development, British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have indicated that they support China’s plan for building Europe’s largest-ever embassy in Tower Hamlets, east of London City in the UK. The embassy is planned to be built at the former Royal Mint, which was bought by China seven years ago.

The local authorities have repeatedly rejected the plan based on various concerns. For instance, the residents have been protesting the Chinese ‘super embassy’ plans based on concerns that it could lead to security risks and spying attempts.

Moreover, the British intelligence agency, M15, has also warned that the building would be extremely close to crucial communication cables, which could be compromised or attacked by the Chinese in a potential espionage attempt.

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There has been a surprise contraction in retail sales in December, despite the month being key for many retailers due to Christmas shopping, official figures show.

Retail sales fell 0.3% last month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

No drop at all was expected, not least a 0.3% drop. Sales growth of 0.4% had been forecast by economists.

The figures are of significance as they measure household consumption, the largest expenditure across the UK economy.

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The December drop is due to a "very poor" month for food sales, which sank to the lowest level since 2013, hurting supermarkets in particular, the ONS said.

The data is in contrast to reports from supermarkets themselves, which reported stellar Christmas trading. It suggests that small shops suffered the brunt of the decline.

The Old Bailey heard the victim, who was aged 18 at the time, had been under the impression she was attending a roller disco with friends at Harrow Leisure Centre on 10 February last year.

Prosecutors said she was attacked during a 45-second pre-planned assault as revenge for performing a sex act on one of the teenagers who had not realised she was transgender.

Sentencing the group on Thursday Judge Philip Katz KC said the ambush was "vicious" and had "elements of transphobia and revenge".

Summer Betts-Ramsey, 20, of Barnet; Bradley Harris, 18, of Harrow; Shiloh Hindes, 18, of Peckham; Camron Osei, 18, of Tadworth and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named due to legal reasons, each pleaded guilty causing GBH with intent.

Sampling results show ‘extremely concerning’ concentrations of PFOS and PFOA at sites across UK

https://archive.is/2025.01.09-113938/https://www.ft.com/content/566976e4-de40-486d-a324-4ddff4446516

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Ed Miliband is facing demands to introduce new measures to stop Britain using solar panels made by the Uighurs, an oppressed Muslim minority in western China, as part of his race towards net zero.

A cross-party group of peers has called for the energy secretary to introduce safeguards that prevent UK renewable energy companies from importing Chinese components made by slave labour.

It comes as the House of Lords debates Labour’s flagship legislation to establish Great British Energy, a publicly-owned company that will help deliver the government’s green transition.

Senior parliamentarians are concerned about the supply chains of renewable energy companies, many of which rely on products from China. In particular, there are questions around solar panels, which often contain polysilicon. Nearly half of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon is produced in the Xinjiang region of China where more than 2.6 million people, mostly from the Uighur ethnic group, have been subjected to forced labour in detention camps.

Academics, politicians and human rights groups have long warned that forced labour is rife there, including in the sourcing of polysilicon, with 11 companies in the region identified as being engaged in forced labour transfers.

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To prevent UK energy supply chains being tainted by forced labour, a group of peers has now tabled an amendment to the bill, which, if approved, would prevent any public funds being given to companies involved with GB Energy where there is “credible evidence of modern slavery in the supply chain”.

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Luke de Pulford, the executive director of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: “Labour has gone from an admirably strong position on the persecution of Uighurs to energy policies which facilitate it. It’s an absolute 180 in policy terms. Now the chancellor is in Beijing meeting with China’s génocidaires.

“Whatever the economic imperative, the consciences of politicians across both Houses should not permit the rush to net zero to be achieved on the back of Uighur slavery.”

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Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17979914

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has been asked what checks are in place to vet firms after fast-fashion retailer Shein refused to answer "basic questions" over its supply chain.

Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, wrote to Dame Julia Hoggett asking if the stock market had tests in place to "authenticate statements" by firms seeking to list, "with particular regard to their safeguards against the use of forced labour in their products".

It comes after MPs branded the evidence of a Shein lawyer "ridiculous" when she refused to say if the company sold products containing cotton from China.

Byrne told Dame Julia that MPs were "profoundly concerned at the lack of candid and open answers".

"The committee would like to draw your attention to the concerning evidence we heard," he said in a letter to the LSE chief executive on Friday.

The BBC understands Shein, founded in China but now headquartered in Singapore, has filed initial paperwork to list in the UK, which could value it at £50bn. It follows the retailers rapid rise to one of the biggest fast fashion firms globally, shipping to customers in 150 countries.

But questions remain over the company's supply chain amid allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses.

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Ahead of Rachel Reeves’ expected visit to China, which comes in the wake of arrest warrants being issued for Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in the UK, Amnesty International has urged the Chancellor to challenge the Chinese authorities over their brutal suppression of human rights and to ensure that human rights are central to any deals or agreements made during the trip.

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“The Chancellor must challenge Beijing’s brutal suppression of human rights, including its persecution of Chinese and Hong Kong activists in the UK,", said Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s UK Foreign Policy Adviser.

“Behind closed doors and in public, Ms Reeves needs to challenge the Chinese government over its systematic, industrial-scale repression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet - including forced labour - and its widespread imprisonment of peaceful activists."

Amnesty also urges Ms Reeves to "demand the immediate release of British national and prisoner of conscience Jimmy Lai, human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung and the 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists recently convicted of ‘conspiring to subvert state power’ in the city’s largest national security trial.”

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The Chinese authorities routinely target peaceful critics via pervasive online censorship, arbitrary arrest, detention and torture. Human rights defenders, pro-democracy activists and religious leaders and practitioners have been among those subjected to systematic persecution. The widespread repression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet has continued despite significant international criticism.

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On 24 December, Hong Kong police announced a third round of HK$1million (about £105,000) bounties for information that would lead to the arrest of six democracy advocates based overseas whom they accuse of national security crimes. To date, 19 Hong Kong overseas activists have been targeted, most of whom live in the UK.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17936188

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A lawyer for Shein summoned to a British parliamentary hearing evaded questions Tuesday on whether the fast-fashion giant sells products containing cotton from China, angering lawmakers seeking answers on the retailer’s labor practices and allegations of forced labor in its supply chains.

Executives from Shein and its rival Temu were grilled on their labor rights compliance and how they source their products at Parliament’s business and trade committee Tuesday. The hearing came amid reports that Shein, which was founded in China but is now based in Singapore, is preparing for a 50 billion-pound ($62 billion) listing on the London Stock Exchange in the first quarter of this year.

Both global retailers are growing in popularity worldwide for selling mostly Chinese-made clothes and products at bargain prices. But they have drawn criticism over allegations that their supply chains may be tainted by forced labor, including from China’s far-west Xinjiang province, where rights groups say serious human rights abuses were committed by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uyghur group and other Muslim minorities.

Yinan Zhu, general counsel at Shein in London, declined to answer repeated questions at the hearing on whether cotton from Xinjiang or elsewhere in China is present in the products it sells.

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