Fast-fashion firm Boohoo put "Made in the UK" labels on potentially thousands of clothes that were actually made in South Asia, BBC Panorama has found. Plain T-shirts and hoodies had their original labels removed at Boohoo's flagship factory, Thurmaston Lane in Leicester, last year. Boohoo said the incorrect labels were down to a misinterpretation of the labelling rules. Thurmaston Lane opened two years ago and was promoted by the retailer as a UK manufacturing centre of excellence, offering end-to-end garment production in the UK. The mislabelling took place at the factory, affecting up to one in 250 of Boohoo's global supply of garments between January and October 2023. The garments had been shipped from Pakistan and other countries in South Asia to Boohoo's Leicester factory where they were printed on. Philip Dunne MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, called the labelling findings a potentially very serious allegation. "Consumers should not be misled as to the source of garments that they're buying," he said. On Tuesday, the BBC reported that Boohoo is considering the closure of its Leicester factory, which is the Manchester-based retailer's only UK manufacturing site.
