Business secretary slaps down Louise Haigh over P&O Ferries ‘rogue operator’ row

The business secretary has slapped down his cabinet colleague Louise Haigh for attacking a major ferry operator on the eve of Sir Keir Starmer’s investment summit.

Jonathan Reynolds said the transport secretary was not speaking for the government when she dubbed P&O Ferries a “rogue operator” and called for the firm to be boycotted.

It followed a 24-hour scramble in Downing Street after P&O’s owner threatened to pull a £1bn investment in a new Thames freeport - timed to coincide with the crucial summit - in response to the transport secretary’s remarks.

Labour is trying to drum up investment into the UK to help kickstart the sluggish economy.

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Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of P&O’s owner DP World, will now also attend the summit, being held in Central London on Monday.

Quizzed about the row on Sunday, Mr Reynolds said: “No, it is not the government’s position to boycott them.”

And, asked whether the government views P&O as a “rogue operator”, Mr Reynolds said: “No, that is not the government’s position.”

He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “But we have got to be clear that we do not support fire and rehire.

“I am happy to clarify that I speak for the government on business issues, we will always make clear what happened was wrong, that is why we are changing the law to make sure it cannot happen again.”

His intervention came as billionaire John Caudwell, who backed Labour at the general election, said Ms Haigh’s comments were “politically stupid”.

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The businessman said: “When the Labour minister says that rogue operators like P&O, I don’t know the ins and outs of that, but what I do know is it’s politically stupid to condemn somebody when you want them to invest in Britain.

“What you should be doing is working behind the scenes to persuade them to improve their relationships, to do things that are more in line with humanitarian employment, rather than just blast them on the TV and cause a real headline that’s damaging to the Labour Party and damaging to business.”

It came after Sir Keir distanced himself from Ms Haigh’s comments to secure the £1bn investment from DP World.

P&O faced scrutiny by politicians from both main parties in March 2022 when it suddenly sacked 800 British seafarers and replaced them with cheaper, mainly overseas, staff, saying it was necessary to stave off bankruptcy.

On Wednesday, Ms Rayner and Ms Haigh introduced legislation to prevent similar actions, with the transport secretary describing P&O Ferries as “cowboy operators” and Ms Rayner saying the incident had been “an outrageous example of manipulation by an employer”.

In an ITV interview Ms Haigh went further, saying: “I’ve been boycotting P&O Ferries for two-and-a-half years, and I encourage consumers to do the same”.

However, Sir Keir distanced himself from the remarks during an interview on the BBC Newscast podcast. Asked whether Ms Haigh was right to call for a boycott of the firm, which she called a “rogue operator”, Sir Keir said: “Well, that’s not the view of the government.”

He added: “And that was an issue that well, you know, the issue that cropped up a number of years ago now that I think across parliament was a cause for real concern. And I think one of the things we’ve done is to change that. So they can’t forget that that matters.

“But what matters to me is keeping our focus on that inward investment because it’s... the jobs of the future that matter and jobs that are well-paid, that are secure, that are skilled and in different parts of the country.”

In his interview, Sir Keir claimed he had achieved all he had hoped in his first 100 days as prime minister but admitted that “along the way, there were bumps and side winds, which I’d prefer we hadn’t bumped into and been pushed by”.

The department of business and trade confirmed on Saturday that DP World will attend the summit.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Liam Byrne, chairman of the House of Commons’ business and trade committee, sought to play down the row, saying Ms Haigh was “absolutely right” to criticise P&O’s past behaviour, but that new legislation would regulate how the firm can treat its staff.

Mr Byrne told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the ferry firm’s past treatment of its workers is “the kind of behaviour that we can’t have in this country”.

But he added that the government’s Employment Rights bill would provide a “very clear framework” on how companies can treat workers, which would “bite on” firms like P&O.

“I think there’s a bit of a split here between the past and the future. So look, Lou Haigh was absolutely right to say that the behaviour of P&O, owned by DP World, in the past has been completely unacceptable.”

Monday’s high-profile investment summit will be used by the government as a chance to champion firms who have already committed billions of pounds to the UK and attempt to woo others who are considering new deals.