The P&O Ferries boss is taking a leaf out of Johnson’s book on bad apologies

With this prime minister, we’re getting used to apologies that aren’t really apologies. These are the ones where the word “sorry” is used but followed by something altogether unapologetic; a spot of boosterism, designed as Boris Johnson intends, to “move on”. It happened again this week with the publication of the Sue Gray report.

And clearly, it’s catching. In March, P&O Ferries sacked 800 staff members on video call. Once they’d been told, security guards ensured their removal from the ships so they could be replaced by cheap labour.

By standards of corporate sackings, it was brutal, up there with City employees returning from a convivial lunch with their boss only to be told they were being fired and must leave immediately. We thought we’d progressed from such barbarity. But along comes P&O to take mass redundancies to a new low. At the time, the ferry operator said the decision to cut jobs was “very difficult but necessary” as it was “not a viable business” in its current state.

That was two months ago. You might have supposed that given the furore they provoked, the firm would have used the time since to polish its act and soften its callous image. Well, apparently not.

In an interview with the BBC, Peter Hebblethwaite, the company’s boss, said he is “incredibly sorry” for the impact of his actions. “The decision we took had a material impact on a number of our ex-employees. And I do regret that.”

But the P&O Ferries boss insisted the move was part of “a difficult decision and repositioning for a better future”.

When asked how he would feel if he was sacked in the same way, Hebblethwaite said it is “not pleasant being made redundant”. Wow. If Johnson ever needs a substitute, someone who can display the same degree of brazen chutzpah while under fire, Hebblethwaite could be his man.

Note the use of the word “incredibly”. That’s straight from the spin doctor’s dictionary of words designed to convey feeling and emotion without saying anything at all. Look, too, at the generalisation. A figure of 800 becomes “a number” in his interview. He’s not going to be led down the path of specifics, of using figures that are high; no sir, he will stick to “a number” that could be large or small.

It was, he insisted, the “only route” they could take. Really? What about a consultation? It’s a laborious process, admittedly, but it’s also a whole lot less savage than termination via video link.

Quickly, he wants us to focus on the positive side. It’s all part of positioning P&O “for a better future”. Yes, but why the need for instant, wholesale execution? The repositioning is why there were cuts, but it’s not the explanation for why 800 workers had to be told without any warning and asked to leave immediately.

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To me, that’s top-drawer Johnson. You brush aside the question with an answer that does not address the question. Genius, and shameful.

The P&O chief also said the firm was “trying very hard” to return items to sacked workers, but admitted some possessions were still missing after being left on the ships when they were escorted off. Blimey. You order staff off the boat, but when you look for their things, they’ve vanished. How does that work?

P&O, he said, was not taking part in a race to the bottom on pay and standards, but that the ferry company needs to modernise and become competitive. He boasted that the firm had issued the biggest redundancy package in maritime history. Surely, that’s because there were so many of them; how many other shipping operators dump 800 folks in one fell swoop?

When pushed on how he justified ignoring the legal requirement to consult staff in advance, and on how and when the decision was made on sacking staff that way, Hebblethwaite declined to comment due to an investigation by the insolvency service.

This approach seems so reminiscent of Johnson, who asked us to wait until the police had completed their inquiries, and then told us to hold out for publication of the Sue Gray report. Buy some time, push it into the long grass. Classic Johnson. In Hebblethwaite, business might just have a worthy equal.