Taking Liberties: The story behind the UK high street

Some of the biggest names on the British high street use Indian sweatshops which pay poverty wages and break labour laws to keep costs to a bare minimum, according to a new report.Surveying the garment industry in Gurgaon,

India, it shows that the workers making clothes for higher end retailers - M&S, Debenhams, Arcadia, Monsoon and NEXT – are subject to the same kinds of mistreatment and poor pay that are faced by garment workers working on budget clothing lines.

The allegations – levelled in a report by anti-poverty campaigners War on Want and Labour Behind the Label – will come as a particular embarrassment to M&S, which is running a glitzy, multi-million pound TV advertising campaign under the slogan "Don't put a foot wrong this Christmas". It is the second time this year the company has faced sweatshop allegations.

Sadly, the fight for a living wage continues, in India and across the world. You can support this struggle by signing up to War on Want’s Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops campaign and by logging on to the Labour Behind the Label website.

War on Want senior campaigns officer Simon McRae said: "Clothes retailers will continue to pile up big profits, despite hikes in cotton prices. Yet the workers making their clothes will remain trapped in dire poverty. It is high time the British government tackled this disgrace with tough regulation on the fashion industry."

Labour Behind the Label is a UK -based organisation which campaigns to support garment workers worldwide in demanding and defending their internationally recognised human rights rights. LBL is the UK platform of the Europe- wide Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC).

Image: India factory workers