Great British Energy Bill

Debate between Pippa Heylings and Nusrat Ghani

Consideration of Lords message
Wednesday 14th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrats spokesperson.

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

I rise in strong support of Lords amendment 2B and the consequential amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion). The Liberal Democrats welcome this key step by the Government towards preventing goods linked to Chinese slave labour from being part of our renewables businesses’ supply chains. The decision, as we have heard, took time, and it is born of pressure from Members of all political parties and the sheer strength of feeling across both Houses. The Great British Energy Bill needed amending, and we thank the Government for reconsidering.

I want to express in particular my appreciation of Lord Alton of Liverpool’s tireless advocacy. Together with Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, the Bill team and colleagues from across both Houses—with important input from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China—there has been a constructive and cross-party effort to confront an issue that is too often left in the shadows: the scourge of modern slavery in our energy supply chains. Groundbreaking investigative research has helped to shine the necessary light on what is at stake. We have heard irrefutable evidence from the BBC, The Guardian, and the world’s foremost expert on Uyghur forced labour, Professor Laura Murphy, that forced labour is being used to produce the solar-grade polysilicon that powers most of the global green transition.

Great British Energy Bill

Debate between Pippa Heylings and Nusrat Ghani

Report stage
Tuesday 29th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Pippa Heylings]

I think I will intervene, if that is okay with you, Madam Deputy Speaker. We welcome that question from the hon. Member for East Thanet (Ms Billington). In fact, there are multiple ownership models, so it is quite right to get clarification. Some of these will need investments from other companies, but others will—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Please be seated. We have a speech mid-flow. Is that correct?