Starmer rebukes Labour's Transport Secretary for branding P&O a "rogue employer."

 

Although Karl Marx believed that the interests of capital and labour were diametrically opposed, Labour's obsequious Business and Trade Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has said that the Labour government is 'proudly pro-business and proudly pro-worker." Is it really possible to reconcile the economic interests of both capitalists and workers? Isn't this really like trying to square the circle?

Labour's transport secretary, Louise Haigh, has been rebuked by Sir Keir Starmer-oid for branding P&O Ferries a "rogue operator" and for calling on customers to boycott the company. When P&O Ferries sacked 800 workers without notice or prior consultation in 2022, and replaced them with foreign workers on lower wages, Angela Rayner described the companies' actions as "outrageous." When P&O Ferry boss Peter Hebblethwaite subsequently appeared before a Commons business select committee, and was asked why he'd broken British law, he was asked, "Are you just a shameless criminal." 

Following the comments made by Louise Haigh, P&O's parent company DP World, threatened to pull out of an investment summit in London and to shelve a £1bn infrastructure project at the London Gateway. When Starmer-oid was asked if his transport secretary had been wrong to brand the company a "cowboy operator" and to encourage a boycott, he said this was not the view of the government.

Although Starmer-oid is well known for being able to turn on a dime and for breaking pledges and promises, official sources said that they were astonished that Haigh had been "hung out to dry" and "thrown under a bus" because she had only been echoing a government press release about new protection for seafarers, which had mentioned "rogue employers" and specifically said that the measures were necessary to prevent another P&O scandal. The press release had been signed off by the Downing Street communications team. Both Haigh and Rayner were said to be "hopping mad" that No 10 had not protected them despite having sanctioned the same highly critical language towards P&O.