Conservative MP John Cooper highlights a report which he says alleged that managers at factories claimed Temu was encouraging them to continue using cotton from China.

Senior legal counsel at Temu, Stephen Heary, says he cannot comment on those specific claims but states that the company takes labour practices very seriously.

Lawmakers move on to grilling the legal counsel and compliance managers for Temu, another major online marketplace founded in China.

Leonard Klenner, the compliance manager, says upholding international standards is an "integral part of how we operate".

He states that any traders operating on the site must provide registration and identification information, all of which is verified.

Only traders who pass these checks are permitted to conduct business on the Temu platform, he says.

"It's a similar process before the product can be listed," he adds.

Lib Dem MP Charlie Maynard says Zhu is "not respecting the committee".

He holds up his laptop and shows that he has searched for cotton on the website, finding about 20 products.

He accuses Zhu of "wilful ignorance" and describes her appearance as "very unhelpful".

He asks her if she thinks she is "being disrespectful" by not answering many of the questions.

Zhu responds that she is "doing the best I can," but Maynard interrupts, saying this is "simply not true."

He sounds frustrated as he states that their questions are "very, very simple" and yet they are not receiving answers.

Labour MP Rosie Wrighting asks Zhu if Shein has suppliers that manufacture clothing in China, to which Zhu replies, yes.

"Do you know which regions?" asks Wrighting.

Zhu lists various regions across the country's north, central, south, and east – but does not mention Xinjiang.

Wrighting responds: "I'm trying to understand how you can lay out the regions you are using in China but cannot lay out if any cotton is manufactured in China for your products."

Zhu does not respond.

The counsel is then asked by MPs how many suppliers have been terminated by Shein. She says she cannot answer such a "granular" question but will provide answers later.

Labour MP Antonia Bance says the UK-based Stop Uyghur Genocide campaign group has recently sent a dossier to managers at Shein, which she says outlines "likely forced labour abuses in the Shein supply chain in Xinjiang".

She describes the dossier's contents as "appalling" and asks whether Zhu has seen it and if she would like to respond.

Zhu says she has received it and that the company takes such issues very seriously.

She states that the contents pertain to international supply chain risks in general and are not specific to Shein's business.

"The key principle is that we comply with the laws and regulations in all the countries we operate in," she says, adding that this includes the UK.

Committee chair presses Zhou on reports that Shein needed to seek permission from China's securities commission to list on US or UK stock exchanges.

It has been widely reported that the fast-fashion giant has sought to go public on the London Stock Exchange, and prior to that, the New York Stock Exchange.

Byrne asks why Shein needed to do that when the Chinese-founded company is based in Singapore.

Counsel Yinan Zhou says she is "not able to comment on any IPO speculation". She repeats that when asked again.

Byrne moves on, saying: "Ok, you can't tell us anything about listing, you can't tell us anything about cotton in Xinjiang products, you can't tell us much in fact."

Image source, UK PARLIAMENT

Committee Chair Liam Byrne also asks about Shein looking to list on the London Stock Exchange.

Again, Zhu says she cannot comment on this.

Byrne then asks why they stopped working on getting a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Once again, Zhu says she cannot comment.

Zhu then is asked by Byrne whether Shein fears there is forced labour in Xinjiang.

Once again, Zhu does not answer the question and instead says it is not her place to comment on geopolitical debate.

"I am only able to answer the questions relating to our business," says Zhu.

First, we hear from Yinan Zhu, EMEA general counsel at Shein.

She is asked whether the company sources cotton from China.

She says they work with a wide network of suppliers, including manufacturers in China, Brazil and Turkey.

The committee's chair Liam Byrne presses her further, asking whether the products they ship contain cotton from China.

After some back and forth, he requests a yes or no answer.

Yinan Zhu responds that she can only answer questions to the best of her understanding and asks if she may provide a written response afterwards.

The questioning of representatives from McDonald's, Tesco and the British Retail Consortium has now concluded.

Representatives from Shein and Temu – the giant online retailers – will now face questions.

Committee Chair Liam Byrne resumes questioning and asks Lorains of Tesco for her observations on trade policy.

Tesco's Claire Lorains says she believes the UK could become a "dumping ground" for second-rate products if the Modern Slavery Act isn't reformed.

She states that if "our policies" lag behind those of America and Europe, "that creates a gap and that creates an ability for things to enter the UK market that aren't entering other markets."

Conservative MP John Cooper asks Opie whether the UK should consider ways to prevent goods from entering the market if there are suspicions they originate from areas where standards have not been met.

Opie says yes.

He adds that there are a number of measures the government could consider, with stopping goods at the border being the final step.

“There are definitely more things the government could do to intervene," he says.

Andrew Opie says he wants the government to "regain its progressive approach" to modern slavery, adding that "very little" has been done since 2015.

Tesco's Claire Lorains agrees and says the UK could stay competitive by aligning with "some of the more progressive" steps being taken in the EU. She highlights the importance of legislation in creating a level playing field for businesses and says the government has a role to play.

Opie also points out that some fashion retailers want to source more garments in the UK but are put off by concerns over tackling human rights abuses.

Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), is now answering questions.

When asked what the government should do to protect vulnerable workers, he said he wanted more detail on how far the proposed agency would go and what powers it would have.

He added that it should tackle recruitment agencies operating outside the UK – particularly those in Europe sending workers to the country.

The agency could also focus on improving modern slavery statements, he says. "Thousands of businesses aren't publishing one, and this new agency could look at that and intervene if the statement is insufficient."

After her question to Tesco, Kumar now turns to Macrow, the chief executive of McDonald's UK and Ireland.

She asks why, unlike Tesco, the company doesn’t publish findings from due diligence in its modern slavery statement.

Macrow responds that it’s not “something I’ve stopped to consider”.

“We have a modern day slavery statement which we comply with, and I haven’t considered beyond that,” Macrow says, but adds he would be happy to “take that away and look into it further".

Next up, Labour MP Sonia Kumar puts a question to Lorains from Tesco.

"48% of high-risk suppliers have incidents of labour market non-compliance... is that part of your business model?" asks Kumar.

Lorains responds: "Absolutely not. We take human rights incredibly seriously."

"48% is a higher number than I would want it to be... increasing, unfortunately, over the last few years," Lorains admits.

She adds that the vast majority of those cases involve ongoing points of improvement, such as the frequency of fire drills.

More questions now on garment manufacturing.

Labour MP Matt Western asks if, when Tesco takes on a contract for garment manufacturing, a team of Tesco employees visits the site to carry out checks and conducts further checks annually.

Lorains explains there are two types of visits: one involves third-party visits by verified audit companies. As she starts to explain the other, she is interrupted.

She then says Tesco does not "contract out our audits."

But Western suggests the auditors are not Tesco employees.

Lorains agrees but adds, "they are trained to the standard we would expect them to be. And that is in part due to the practicality of the number of sites we look at."

The Labour MP then asks what Tesco has done since 2022 to ensure lawful garment manufacturing.

In response, Lorains says there is a framework of various measures in place, including an annual human rights audit that examines both the site and the surrounding worker environment, such as accommodation.

She says there are ongoing due diligence measures, including a "protector line" which allows workers in high-risk countries the "opportunity to raise concerns with us even if they're not contracted directly through us".

When asked by Wrighting if she trusts the current suppliers, Lorains says: "I absolutely trust that our supply base is clear on our requirements".

Labour MP Rosie Wrighting is now asking questions.

She’s discussing lawsuits filed by Burmese migrant workers over a factory in Mae Sot, Thailand.

Wrighting asks what checks were carried out during the factory’s onboarding process.

Lorains explains that their onboarding process for any supplier involves a "technical audit," and for factories in "high-risk countries," a human rights audit is also required.

She says suppliers can’t be approved until these steps are completed.

On the site in question, she states they "would have gone through all those stages".

The committee is pressing Lorains on whether Tesco has proper systems in place to ensure cotton and tomatoes are not sourced from Xinjiang.

Lorains says, "We have made it clear to all our suppliers that we do not want any products sourced from Xinjiang," but admits there were technical failings that resulted in Xinjiang tomatoes being used in Tesco tomato paste.