The hearing came after the BBC reported the company had filed initial paperwork to list shares on the London Stock Exchange, which could value it at £50bn.

Ms Zhu refused to provide answers on the potential listing.

Charlie Maynard, a Liberal Democrat MP on the committee, hit out at Ms Zhu’s comments, and accused her for “wilful ignorance”.

“I am on your website and I can see about 20 products which are all cotton…. and yet you say to our chair that you can’t state whether Shein is selling any products which are made in China, which are made of cotton? I find that completely ridiculous,” he said.

“You mention every other spot of the compass, but you don’t mention west China, you don’t mention Xinjiang at all. It’s wilful ignorance.”

Ms Zhu responded saying she was “doing the best I can”, and was “giving answers to the best of my ability”, which prompted Maynard to reply: “That is simply not true.”

Appearing exasperated, Liam Byrne, chair of the committee, said for a company that sells £1bn worth of goods to consumers, and was looking to list in the UK, the committee had been “pretty horrified by the lack of evidence” Ms Zhu had provided.

“You can’t tell us anything about listing, you can’t tell us anything about cotton in Shein products, and you can’t tell us much, in fact.”

Byrne added that Ms Zhu’s reluctance to answer basic questions “bordered on contempt of the committee”.

In contrast, fellow fast-fashion retailer Temu told the committee that it did not permit sellers from the Xinjiang region to sell products on the platform.

Stephen Heary, senior legal counsel at Temu, said: “Any issues of labour practices are something that we take fundamentally very seriously.”

Byrne said the company had given “some reassurance” over its supplier agreements.