Maajid Nawaz attacks "anti-racist posturing" amid Leicester slavery investigation

5 July 2020, 16:32

Maajid attacks companies for posturing while supporting low pay

By Seán Hickey

As a Leicester clothing factory faces a slavery investigation, Maajid Nawaz destroyed companies for "posturing" on anti-racism while profiting off abusive working conditions.

A factory in Leicester has been found to be "paying staff a measly £3.50 an hour." Maajid Nawaz was furious with this news and singled out one of the company's most well known customers – online retail giant Boohoo.

He was baffled that the CEO of Boohoo was "waiting for a £50 million bonus" while buying from a supplier that pays it's staff a fraction of the minimum wage. He insisted however that "that may not be as shocking as what you hear next."

Maajid called out "the posturing of companies seeking to profit off anti-racism" as he read out some of the online activity of Boohoo showing support for anti-racism movements and showing support for Palestine.

"The hypocrisy of this stinks" he said. "

Anti-racism is more important than to allow itself to be coopted as hashtags by very wealthy corporations to sell more products to people."

Maajid was disgusted by the revelations, highlighting the hypocrisy that "you've got corporates warning people not to only be a hashtag while they're paying their staff £3.50 an hour."

Brad Blitz on Boohoo supply chain "slavery" accusations

Brad Blitz is the former director of the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Programme at the British Academy and a Professor in International Politics at UCL. He spoke to Maajid following a statement from Boohoo representatives saying there will be an investigation.

He accepted that the daily wage of £3.50 is obviously a "pitiful amount" and said there should be further investigations to find out "how is it that workers were paid so little."

Mr Blitz told Maajid that "a number of factories were investigated by the police" and believed that the findings are only the tip of the iceberg.

You can listen to the statement from Boohoo below.