Fashion retailer Boohoo put ‘Made in UK’ labels on clothes made in South Asia, according to the BBC’s Panorama programme, which said the mislabelling could affect “thousands of clothes”.

Boohoo logo on phone against background of Boohoo website showing models

A BBC investigation claims Boohoo has mislabelled garments

The BBC investigation found plain T-shirts and hoodies had their original labels removed last year at Boohoo’s Thurmaston Lane factory in Leicester, which the retailer is considering closing.

The mislabelling is said to have taken place at the factory, possibly affecting up to one in 250 of Boohoo’s global supply of clothes between January and October 2023.

The items had been shipped from countries in South Asia, including Pakistan, to Boohoo’s Thurmaston Lane factory where the ‘Made in UK’ labels were added.

The BBC believes this could have resulted in hundreds of thousands of incorrectly labelled garments. 

Boohoo did not provide the BBC with its own figures but claims this was an isolated incident “as a result of human error”.

A spokesperson for the retailer said: “We have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again.”

The news comes after another BBC Panorama investigation, which aired in November, accused Boohoo of breaking promises to make its clothing fairly and ethically at the Thurmaston Lane factory.