Watford's Lush to campaign against scrapping modern slavery support

All Lush stores, including the Watford branch, will be joining forces with After Exploitation and more than 40 leading modern slavery charities as part of a national campaign calling on the Part 5 of the Nationality and Borders Bill to be scraped.

Under Part 5, due to be debated in the House of Lords next week, survivors of modern slavery would no longer be guaranteed a right to support such as safe housing, counselling, or financial subsistence.

The modern slavery campaign that will be display. Credit: PA

Meanwhile Part 5 would also see certain ‘types’ of victims, such as those with a criminal conviction or barriers to sharing abuse ‘quickly enough’, subject to new bans from support.

To support the campaign, the Lush shop front will have a catching display between Monday (February 28) and next Sunday (March 6) to ‘Scrap Part 5’.

Each of Lush’s 101 store fronts across the UK will carry the slogan: “Don’t let the Government rip up support for modern slavery survivors”, alongside a QR code and URL, so that customers can quickly and easily take part in the Scrap Part 5 action.

The branch at Atria Watford will be one of many partaking in the campaign.

Hilary Jones, ethics director at Lush, said: “Modern day slavery is still a reality in supply chains, both in the UK and worldwide, and companies have rightly been required to put in extra measures to root it out.

“It is therefore crucially important that once victims have been identified they are able to access the help and support they need to get their life back.

“Now is not the time to reduce Government support for these incredibly vulnerable and abused individuals.”