Boohoo is not back in the news; but on Wednesday 1st May, the socialist MP for Leicester East, Claudia Webbe, did ask a series of important questions to a high-ranking Boohoo executive named Andrew Reaney at a meeting of the government’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC). (For a detailed report on what Boohoo executives said at an earlier EAC meeting, see my earlier post “Auditing Billionaire Profiteers: The Real Truth Behind Boohoo’s Dark Factories.”)
At one point during the latest EAC meeting Webbe asked: “Andrew, does Boohoo yet recognise a union?” To which the Boohoo executive answered, “We don’t”.
Webbe also asked the executive how many Leicester-based garment suppliers were used by Boohoo and he replied “in the 30s”. This was slightly off, as according to the supplier list that can be found on Boohoo’s website, they have just 29 Leicester-based suppliers, which represents a significant reduction since March 2021 when Boohoo were purchasing garments “from 69 different sites situated across Leicester”.
In another interesting revelation, Andrew, the Boohoo executive, asserted that the reason why their showcase factory on Thurmaston Lane recently closed down was because they couldn’t get skilled enough staff – which in my mind at least seems hard to believe. Andrew thus explained: “The vision for Thurmaston Lane [factory] was to manufacture what we would call more complex garments—garments that would generally get made overseas, such as woven dresses, buttoning, plackets, fusing; more complex areas.” He then added:
“The truth is that that skill set unfortunately is not in the UK. We tried for two years. We operated, at one point, a two-shift pattern. We spent a lot of time and effort and invested a lot in trying to upskill the workers, but quite frankly we found that we could not make those garments to the right workmanship standard in the UK. That is why we made the genuinely very reluctant decision to close that facility down.”
This tall tale of course doesn’t match up with previous descriptions of the proposed purpose of the so-called model factory or the reason for its closure. For instance, in February 2021 Andrew was reported as saying:
“The factory will be used to manufacture ‘a small percentage’ of sustainable garments across the group. Basic clothing items, such as T-shirts and sweatshirts, will be produced there using sustainable materials such as recycled polyester and BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) cotton. The group is currently in ‘strategic’ conversations with local fabric mills about the sourcing of these fabrics.”
Webbe however suggested that the factory’s closure was more likely related to the airing (in November 2023) of the BBC Panorama exposé “That said that your workers at Thurmaston Lane were making garments that essentially were about changing labels to ‘Made in Britain’.” Andrew, as you might expect, denied this was the real reason for the closure. Instead, he alleged that when the documentary aired Boohoo were already in the process of consulting with their staff on the factory’s closure… a likely story.
But the most devastating part of the parliamentary questioning of Boohoo (that still remains unreported in the media) occurred when Webbe asked:
“[H]ow confident are you that your supply chains are able to pay workers properly and that their rights are protected and, for example, they do not end up with contracts that say that their holiday pay will be paid after 12 months’ service, or that their hours can be reduced to 10 hours a week should the work reduce, even if they have been working more than five years? How confident are you that their wages are not delayed because of delays in payments in your supply chain, and that they are not forced to work longer because they are seeking to meet your deadlines?”
To this, Andrew responded:
“What you have listed there are, effectively, evidence of modern slavery. What I would say categorically is that no responsible retailer would tolerate modern slavery—nor us, from that perspective. If you have any specifics related to Boohoo suppliers or suppliers that manufacture Boohoo goods, please share.”
To which Webbe categorically answered:
“I am saying quite clearly that these are what your employment contracts are for your supply chains. This is what the employment contracts say. These are the current, apparently legally compliant, employment contracts that pass through your supply chain.”
https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/660c0198-d534-4bfa-8827-f8e373940147?in=16:53:54
Thoughts of a Leicester Socialist 