Red face for Corbyn over T-shirt claims

T-shirts sold to raise funds for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign are being made by Bangladeshi workers paid just 30p an hour, it has been reported.

The Mail on Sunday said it had found machinists living in poverty-stricken conditions were required to work 10 hours-a-day to make the garments which were sold for £10 each by the Momentum campaign group.

Momentum said it had cancelled the contract for the T-shirts suggesting it had been misled by one of its suppliers over labour practices at the factory.

However The Mail on Sunday said the factory concerned was owned by the same firm which was revealed by the newspaper to have paid factory workers in Nicaragua and Haiti as little as 49p an hour to make the official Team Corbyn T-shirts for his first Labour leadership bid.

A spokesman said: “Momentum is dedicated to championing people’s rights at work both at home and overseas.

“We want every worker at home and abroad to be in a trade union, and to enjoy the full protections that the ILO (International Labour Organisation) recommends as minimum standards. We refuse to work with any supplier who does not uphold these standards.”

The report claimed the basic salary at the factory in Baipayl, was around £63 a month – well below the average wage in Bangladesh of £93.

Jeremy Corbyn