P&O should be a lesson – we need to plug the legal loopholes

Paying workers well below the UK minimum wage is allowed because of trading in international waters in vessels registered abroad. We need to prevent others following P&O’s example, writes Caroline Bullock

The boss of P&O Ferries has insisted he will not reverse the decision to sack nearly 800 seafarers despite being given ‘one further opportunity’ by transport secretary Grant Shapps (PA)

Before the grubby mass sacking of its workforce to be replaced with cheaper agency workers, I always had a soft spot for P&O Ferries.

A ubiquitous British brand on a par with Cadbury’s and Wimbledon, rooted favourably in the psyche in fond nostalgia, its sailings bookended many of my childhood trips to France over the years and into adulthood.

In fact the scope of its on-board offering was very much the final flourish, the last hurrah if you like, of these biannual breaks before a return to the usual routine beckoned. I recall a spate of P&O sailings at some point in the 90s, which included a cabaret – usually a female singer dressed in full showgirl feathered glam, belting out Whitney Houston songs; on reflection all quite an effort for the one-hour afternoon crossing to Calais and probably long since abandoned.