EXCLUSIVE: Does the Net Zero Dept know what it's subsidising with our money?

Chinese producers of 'green' minerals accused of deaths - and slave labour using children

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2026

Shocking revelations over world's largest supplier of products for Miliband's "green revolution"

If you thought green energy was clean and Red Ed’s motives pure, our new report shared exclusively with GB News raises some difficult questions.

As the Prime Minister’s days increasingly look numbered, thoughts have naturally turned to succession. According to polling, younger Labour Party members apparently favour Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and former leader of the Party, to take over.

Up until now, ‘Red Ed’ has been said to have a better reputation amongst many backbenchers than the other contenders.

All that could change, with our shocking revelations today.

The People’s Channel has been given exclusive access to an advance copy of our report which Facts4EU has produced in collaboration with our partner organisations, The Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIBUK.Org), and Stand for Our Sovereignty.

Chinese use of slave labour, including children, in deadly conditions, to make our ‘clean’ energy

Facts4EU’s report reveals how Chinese government-backed mining conglomerates are engaged in the most appalling use of slave labour in poor African countries to extract rare materials such as cobalt and copper.

The big question: Are we using these materials in our cars,
our wind & solar farms, and our mega-battery storage facilities?

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Do cheap Chinese electric vehicles come at a wholly unacceptable cost in human lives?

‘Renewable’ energy requires cobalt for batteries, without which the hundreds of thousands of imported Chinese cars flooding the UK market would not run. Even more critically, the entire electricity infrastructure would grind to a halt, as enormous battery storage facilities are essential for capturing electricity needed when the intermittent British sun fails to shine and the wind stops blowing.

The ‘renewables’ grid envisaged by Ed Miliband would quite simply become inoperable, resulting in the kind of blackouts which have recently affected parts of the EU.

It would therefore be expected that there would be a rigorous set of criteria laid down by the Government Department responsible, to ensure that all the components used in 'green energy' do not use anything which comes from the mining of rare minerals by the Chinese. In this case we are looking at just one of these: cobalt, but the principles apply, regrettably to many others.

The Government must be aware of the full, dirty cost of Chinese activities

With the Government embroiled in the Mandelson scandal involving revelations on an almost daily basis, and its credibility ebbing away in advance of the upcoming local and regional elections, this report could not come at a worse time.

Given the Government could not fail to be aware of the well-documented story of exactly how the Chinese are able to dominate the supply chain for Ed Miliband’s ‘green revolution’, the central question is whether we are all inadvertently supporting atrocious conditions for workers mining - in this case - cobalt.

How the Government has cosied up to an abusive regime

Only two months ago, the People’s Channel published news of a Net Zero agreement struck by Ed Miliband with the Chinese last year.

Below: Ed Miliband in China, 2025, doing a deal with the Chinese government

© GB News 2026 - click to read

This followed a GB News report on Facts4EU’s revelations earlier in February on Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to China this year.

© GB News 2026 - click to read

How the Chinese have cornered the market in world cobalt

Around 20 years ago the Chinese government realised the only way they could ensure a plentiful supply of certain rare minerals was to underwrite giant corporations to buy up large tracts of the few African states which have the size of deposits needed to mine for the components which go into the ‘green revolution’.

Vast areas are now run by the Chinese masters with the apparent complicity of the African governments concerned, particularly in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), allegedly involving corruption on a significant scale.

Facts4EU’s strong contacts across the Commonwealth and in the US have meant our evidence is comprehensive and covers official reports as well as stories in the mainstream media abroad.

1. Official studies

As long ago as May 2023, the Chinese practices in the DRC were well-known. The US Dept of Labor produced a major report on it:-

“Forced Labor in Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”

US Dept of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking

“In aggregate, these findings indicate that labor conditions for cobalt mine workers are abominable. Workers are routinely exposed to a panoply of work-related hazards, most suffer illness or injury related to their work, and many experience forced labor.”

The problem is that Facts4EU has seen video evidence that the same practices have been continuing, since this report was produced.

Pay rates:

In being forced to work at such imminent risk to life, workers are paid the bare minimum. “On average, mine workers earn about $8 [Approx. £5.90] per day”, with a proportion earning less than half that amount. A working day is typically 9.5 hours. In one mine alone, 40,000 children are said to be working and receive “a pittance” despite being subject to the same risks as the adults.

2. Strong, high level political contacts

The Government’s views on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s human rights record was evident on Friday (24 Apr 2026) when Alyson King, UK’s outgoing Ambassador to DRC, gave a farewell speech in Kinshasa.

3. Media coverage

Mainstream US media such as the New York Times and the Washington Post have run reports on the human rights abuses by Chinese mining conglomerates in African countries which are underwritten by the Communist Party. In addition, Australasian media have run many reports on the activities of these mining conglomerates, most recently with a major documentary by an Australian TV channel.

So, just how much of products like imported cobalt is the UK using in Ed Miliband's 'Green revolution'?

The simple answer is that we don't know. However, the following chart based on data obtained from the UN gives some idea of just how dependent the UK is on its import of these rare minerals required to fuel the 'green revolution'.

It appears we have been taking over one-quarter of the world's importing market.

Given all of the above, Facts4EU contends it is very difficult to see how Ed Miliband and his government colleagues could be unaware of the facts relating to cobalt and other mining in the DRC. And the UK abolished child labour in all its forms in a series of legislative Acts from 1819 to 1901.

Are there any controls on what we are spending as a country on minerals like cobalt, separately or as part of ready-made components, subsidised by billions from the taxpayer, which are being spent with China?

[ Sources: FCDO | British Embassy, Kinshasha | DESNZ | Official US Geological Survey | US Dept of Labor | UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 30 Apr 2026

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