Princess Eugenie has interviewed former prime minister Theresa May to raise awareness of the fight against modern slavery.
The late Queen’s granddaughter visited Mrs May in her parliamentary office in the House of Commons for The Anti-Slavery Collective’s Floodlight podcast to mark Anti-Slavery Day.
Mrs May, who is on the advisory board of Eugenie’s charity, has dedicated much of her political career to tackling slavery in the UK and overseas, but warned the situation was getting worse.
The former Tory leader, who launched a new Global Commission for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking earlier this month, discussed how traffickers were targeting displaced people from Ukraine.
“It’s not just the political momentum has gone out, the problem’s got worse. And we saw in the conflict in Ukraine … the traffickers just picking people up,” she said.
Eugenie praised Mrs May for her long-standing work on the issue, telling her: “That is so cool that you were prime minister and this was your biggest thing. I just wanted to say that because that is awesome.”
As Home Secretary, Mrs May introduced the Modern Slavery Act 2015 which brought together existing offences into one law and created new duties and powers to protect victims and prosecute offenders.
Mrs May branded modern day slavery “appalling” and the “complete degradation of individuals and removal of their freedom”.
An estimated 122,000 people are trapped in slavery in the UK, and more than 50 million people around the world.
She heard how Eugenie and The Anti-Slavery Collective co-founder Julia de Boinville met a teenager who was previously trafficked from her home in Manchester.
Mrs May said: “There are an awful lot of people who still think of human trafficking as being across borders.
“In a sense, the term human trafficking doesn’t really bring home the misery that people are subjected to.
“Most people think (slavery) finished here and across the world centuries ago but actually using that word really brings it home.”
The 2015 legislation also introduced a new defence for victims of slavery and trafficking who have been forced to break the law, and it required businesses with an annual turnover of at least £36m to publish an annual statement, setting out the steps they take to prevent modern slavery within their supply chains.
Mrs May called on the Government to do more to make sure businesses comply with the rules.
“I think there is more for Government to do on enforcement, actually bringing something in that really means you can make sure that is happening,” she said.
“A business could put a statement on its accounts and actually they haven’t really done anything.”
The princess, the youngest daughter of the Duke of York, co-founded The Anti-Slavery Collective in 2017.
