// Boohoo calls on government to take action in protecting workers after allegations of malpractice
// Boohoo had over £1 billion wiped from its share value in just two days after the allegations
Boohoo has urged the government to take action in protecting workers by introducing a licensing scheme to ensure that textile factories are fit to trade.
The urgency comes after the fast fashion retailer, which owns Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing and Nasty Gal, was embroiled in allegations of malpractice at a supplier in Leicester.
Boohoo had more than £1 billion wiped from its share value in two days after a Sunday Times article accused it of paying factory workers as little as £3.50 an hour.
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Following the allegations, retailers such as Next and Asos dropped Boohoo products from their websites.
On Friday, Boohoo Group chief executive John Lyttle sent a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel headlined “protecting people being exploited in UK garment factories”.
He wrote that around 40 per cent of Boohoo’s products were manufactured in the UK, “supporting thousands of jobs in this country that may otherwise be lost to overseas markets”.
Lyttle added that Boohoo is taking action to investigate allegations of malpractice in its supply chain and asks government to take action too.
He wrote that Boohoo backed calls from the BRC and the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) for Fashion and Textiles and Ethics and Sustainability for the government to implement a “Fit to Trade” licensing scheme to ensure all garment factories met their legal obligations to employees.
On Friday, Boohoo co-founders Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane bought another £15 million worth of shares in a bid to stop its share price from falling any further.
Kamani injected £10.7 million into five million shares, while Kane spent £4.3 million on Boohoo stock on Thursday, in an attempt to boost the embattled business.
Meanwhile, fast fashion retailer Quiz said it believes that one of its suppliers, based in Leicester, has used a subcontractor at the centre of allegations over breaches to the national living wage.
The National Crime Agency said on July 8 that it was assessing allegations of modern slavery and exploitation in the textile industry in Leicester.
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