A Virtual Roundtable with Emily Thornberry MP and Bill Esterson MP

By Tamara Cincik, CEO and Founder of Fashion Roundtable

On 20 April, we hosted a roundtable with the Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, Emily Thornberry MP and her team member Bill Esterson MP. This, combined with my new role as a Commissioner for the UK Trade and Business Commission, is why I launched Fashion Roundtable. I wanted to boost our industry's reputation with policy leaders, while supporting innovation and greater sustainability. UK talent has consistently punched above its weight: we are a small cluster of islands off the North Sea, but when you look at cinema, theatre, art of fashion, it is the UK talent pool who consistently show genius and win accolades across the world.

This work is twofold. Firstly, it’s about tackling injustice and inequalities, as illustrated by our event on May 7th where BECTU (the union for the creative industries) and Instagram's cult Fashion Assistants (an account sharing exploitative practice toward styling assistants via the medium of memes and quotes), and our meetings looking at MSA and climate change for the Ethics and Sustainability APPG.

But it’s also about shining a light on opportunities to do better and build a UK fashion and textiles industry which is the greenest, most transparent and most inclusive across the globe. This is why I am so pleased that Paul Scully MP the Minister for Small Business is speaking at the Textiles and Fashion APPG's Build Back Better meeting on April 26th. I hope to see you at these events and across 2021, whether online, or hopefully soon, in real life.