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Government must ‘finally act’ to tackle abuse in garment industry

US Customs agency says it has enough evidence to launch an investigation into allegations of slave labour in Boohoo's supply chain

A POTENTAIL ban on US imports of Boohoo clothes over claims of slave labour must push the British government to “finally act” to tackle abuse in the garment industry, an MP has said.

The US Customs and Border Protection said this week that it has enough evidence to launch an investigation into allegations of slave labour in the fast fashion giant’s supply chain, according to Sky News. 

Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe welcomed the news today, adding that it puts the British government’s inaction on tackling issues in the city’s garment factories to shame.

“For years, Boohoo was aware of endemic workers’ rights abuses in Leicester’s garment industry,” she said, but the brand “chose to ignore the suffering of workers in order to seek ever-higher profits.”

“This has been an open secret for too long,” she continued. “The UK government must take this opportunity to finally act and end the scourge of garment industry exploitation in Leicester, across the UK and around the world.”

It comes after allegations last year that some factories in Britain working for Boohoo were paying staff as little as £3.50 an hour and had working conditions which did not meet lockdown restrictions.

On Tuesday, the company said that it had not been notified of the investigation. It highlighted the independent review into the scandal by Alison Levitt QC from September, which stated: “There is no evidence that the company itself or its officers have committed any criminal offences.”

But Ms Levitt also found “serious issues” in the supply chain.

Campaign group Labour Behind the Label said: “It is time for concerted action from global governments to properly hold companies to account for human rights violations that occur in their supply chains.”

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