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The Ministry of Defence spent the money with the controversial ferry firm after it faced widespread condemnation for firing 800 workers by video in March last year
Tory ministers handed nearly £600,000 to P&O Ferries after blasting the firm for sacking 800 seafarers.
The ferry line fired staff without notice in March 2022, replacing them with foreign agency workers who were paid less than the UK minimum wage. Outraged Conservatives lined up to condemn the firm – but have now admitted they continued to pump hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to the company.
The Ministry of Defence revealed it funnelled funds to the firm for passenger tickets and shipping military equipment to the Continent. Answering a written parliamentary question tabled by Labour, Defence Procurement Minister James Cartlidge said: “Between March 17, 2022 and July 1, 2023, the Ministry of Defence made payments of £425,166 directly with P&O using ePC (government procurement) cards primarily for freight movements (this includes operational and freight movements by the National Movement Coordination Centre (Army)), and a further £164,000 was spent through GBT (American Express Global Business Travel), the MoD’s contracted travel management company, primarily for business travel.”
Defending the payments, the unrepentant Tory vowed: “The department will continue to use P&O Ferries where there are robust operational or technical reasons for doing so. Some routes are solely serviced by P&O Ferries and may offer the only option for our strategic movement requirements.”
The admission that taxpayers’ cash was spent on voyages with a firm that triggered huge fury by axing dedicated sailors sparked renewed anger tonight. Commons Business Select Committee chairman Darren Jones said: “It’s no wonder P&O felt it was OK to tell Parliament they knowingly broke the law and would do so again, given Tory ministers keep awarding the company, and their parent company, taxpayer-funded contracts. Do Tory ministers really think the way to lay down the law, on behalf of the 800 workers who were sacked, is by offering up hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money?“
Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak told the Mirror: “The Government is lining the pockets of lawbreaking P&O Ferries’ bosses with taxpayers’ money. It’s an insult to common decency – the company behaved like corporate gangsters. When P&O illegally sacked hundreds of dedicated staff with no notice, the Government vowed to tackle this unacceptable employment practice. But ministers failed to properly act – tinkering around the edges of the law – and they are now rewarding P&O.”
When the ferry firm sacked staff without notice and via a video message, and replaced them with cheaper overseas crew, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the dismissals were illegal. The new staff were hired through Malta-based International Ferry Management, set up just weeks earlier. The Transport Secretary at the time, Grant Shapps, called for P&O boss Peter Hebblethwaite to quit for breaking employment law.
The then Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng asked the Insolvency Service to investigate whether any offences had been committed. But it ruled there was “no realistic prospect of a conviction” – meaning the firm faced no criminal proceedings.
However, during select committee hearings in Parliament the business admitted it had broken the law that would have forced it to give notice of the firings. The firm’s £325,000-a-year fatcat boss Mr Hebblethwaite insisted he would do the same again, claiming the sackings were necessary because “P&O was otherwise going to close”.
He told the Commons Business Select Committee: “There is absolutely no doubt we were required to consult the union. We chose not to do that. It was our assessment that the change was of such a magnitude that no union would possibly accept our proposal. I would make the same decision again.”
Mr Nowak said tonight: “Ministers should have severed all contracts with P&O Ferries and its owner DP World and they should have strengthened the law to make sure another P&O Ferries scandal is never allowed to happen again. The Government has given rogue employers a free pass to act with impunity.
“Workers need more power in the workplace, not less. It’s time for the Government to put in place proper protections for workers who are at the mercy of bad bosses – that starts with a fair pay agreement for the ferry sector.”
Shipping firms registered abroad and running routes from the UK to Europe are exempt from Britain’s minimum pay laws.
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