Great British Energy Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 2

What happened

On 25 March 2025, the House of Commons voted 314 to 198 to disagree with Lords Amendment 2 to the Great British Energy Bill. This motion rejected a change inserted by the House of Lords that would have prevented the Secretary of State from providing financial assistance to any company designated as Great British Energy if there was credible evidence of modern slavery in its supply chains. By passing this motion, the Commons returned the Bill to the Lords without that amendment, advancing the legislation broadly as the Government intended.

Why it matters

The vote keeps Great British Energy on track to be established as a state-owned clean energy company without a statutory restriction on funding tied to modern slavery findings in supply chains. In practical terms, this means Great British Energy will not face an automatic funding cutoff when credible evidence of forced labour is identified among its suppliers. Critics argued this leaves a moral gap, particularly given that a significant proportion of solar panels and components used in renewable energy infrastructure rely on polysilicon produced in Xinjiang, China, where forced labour involving Uyghurs is widely documented. Supporters of the Government's position argued that the Lords amendment was too blunt an instrument, as it would have halted all of Great British Energy's activities rather than targeting specific supply chain relationships, and that existing tools such as the Procurement Act 2023 and a solar taskforce already address these concerns.

The politics

The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of rejecting the Lords amendment, providing the Government's majority of 314. All 101 voting Conservative MPs, all 63 voting Liberal Democrats, all eight voting Scottish National Party MPs, all five voting Reform UK MPs, all five Democratic Unionist Party MPs, all four voting Plaid Cymru MPs, and all four voting Green Party MPs voted against the Government's motion, supporting the Lords amendment. Two Labour backbenchers, Sarah Champion (Rotherham) and Alex Sobel, tabled their own amendments to Lords Amendment 2 seeking to refine rather than simply reject it, reflecting genuine unease on the Labour benches about the modern slavery issue, though the Government ultimately pressed ahead with straightforward disagreement. The Bill represents a central Labour manifesto commitment, and this vote forms part of the ping-pong process between the two chambers as the legislation moves toward Royal Assent.