Garment factories in the UK don’t always pay minimum wages. Under payment is rife and goes hand in hand with a culture of fear and intimidation in the textile industry. At a time when NGOs from the West are campaigning about the lack of living wage in Bangladesh, the fact that UK workers making clothing for western brands are not even being paid a minimum wage, let alone a living wage, illustrates the complexity of this issue.

Calls for textile reshoring have often been made on the assumption that bringing textile production back to the UK and other western nations will mean clothing is made in better working conditions and for better pay than in South East Asia.

In the meantime the uncertainty that has hung over the UK economy since the country voted to leave the European Union in a referendum two-and-a-half years ago continues. For the industry, the main areas of concern are the impact leaving the European Union could have on trade, investment and access to skilled international workers. The worst scenario for the fashion industry would be that the UK crashes out of the European Union with no deal at all. That would likely mean sharply higher import costs and could potentially lead to labor shortages and goods stuck outside ports of entry on both sides of the border.