On Sunday 12th June, the home secretary was criticised for her claims that “cultural sensitivities” prevented a robust response to alleged worker exploitation in Leicester.
Recently a report titled Labour Behind the Label alleged that workers were forced to work despite high levels of infection in factories and allegations of “furlough fraud”. The same reported also indicated that this trend can be attributed to the higher surge in number of coronavirus cases in Leicester which was eventually forced into a second lockdown. Now, Patel is considering new laws to curb modern slavery following the report.
The report recorded the experience of an unnamed worker who had informed his employer that he was unwell but was told to come in to work anyway – even after testing positive. He was told not to inform other workers about the result. In one factory with 80 staff, around 15 had Covid-19 at the same time, another worker told the authors.
According to the Sunday Times, Patel had “privately raised concerns” that police and government agencies were turning a blind eye to the problem because they might be labelled racist.
The Home Secretary had reportedly compared the issues in Leicester, where south Asian factory owners run an industry heavily reliant on immigrant and BAME labour, to the Rotherham grooming scandal. In an interview with LBC, Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, Andrew Bridgen said,
"There are probably 10,000 modern slaves in Leicester" in about 250 of these “sweatshops" and they have gone under the radar for such a long time because the city council don't inspect them."
"Locally it was an open secret in Leicester, everybody knew about it.
"I would point out that all the factories are in the constituency of Leicester East which is the hotspot of where the virus has flared up in Leicester and anyone saying there's not a link between those conditions, the poverty wages and the fact that Leicester's in a lockdown, it just doesn't add up."
