The motion tabled by Stephen.
Last Friday, Stephen tabled a motion to mark the tenth anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster, which claimed the lives of 1,134 people, injured 2,500 more, and impacted countless livelihoods.
On 24 April 2013, a eight storey commercial building, called Rana Plaza, collapsed in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka District in Bangladesh. The building contained several clothing factories. The building’s owners had ignored warnings about structural failures in the building after cracks had appeared the day before, and insisted on workers returning to the factory. The building collapsed during the morning rush hour.
The motion, supported by eleven other MPs including Labour’s Hilary Benn MP, the Conservative’s Bob Blackman MP, and the SNP’s Lisa Cameron MP, remembers the tragedy while commending Bangladesh for its efforts since the disaster to improve the safety of its garment factories. The motion “notes that Bangladesh has 187 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified green factories, including half the world's top 100 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified green factories.” It goes on to urge all fashion brands to raise environmental and labour standards.
Speaking about the motion, Stephen said, “The Rana Plaza disaster sent shock waves around the world. Ten years on, hundreds of Bangladesh families are still grappling with the consequences, and our hearts go out to them. We welcome the major improvements which have been made since in Bangladesh to safeguard worker safety, and hope that similar improvements will follow in garment factories in other countries.”