Opposition debate on P&O Ferries

In the opposition day debate on P&O Ferries’ replacement of 800 UK employees for cheaper labour, the incident was compared by shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh as akin to “a Dickensian depiction belonging to another era”. 

Transport secretary Grant Shapps described the matter as “utterly unacceptable”, telling the House that while redundancies can be “sometimes inescapable”, there is “no excuse” for what happened last Thursday.

Conservative backbencher Huw Merriman later added the further detail that replacement P&O Ferries workers will receive £1.80 per hour, something possible because the Dubai-owned company doesn’t have its ships registered in the UK.