MPs call for P&O Ferries boss to be axed as Government moves to stop sackings

Transport minister Robert Courts said Peter Hebblethwaite’s position at the head of the company was ‘untenable’.

Peter Hebblethwaite (House of Commons/PA) (PA Wire)

The Government has faced calls to dismiss the P&O Ferries chief executive from his job as part of a series of measures it plans to take against the company.

Transport minister Robert Courts said Peter Hebblethwaite’s position at the head of the company was “untenable”, as he confirmed to the Commons that the Government was bringing forward a package of measures to prevent P&O Ferries from sacking 800 British seafarers.

However, the minister declined to say whether the P&O boss’s removal would be included in the package, due to be announced later this week.

His position is untenable and he ought to go

Robert Courts

Hull North MP Dame Diana Johnson asked if removing Mr Hebblethwaite was under “active consideration”.

The Labour MP added: “Will one of those measures be the removal of the chief executive as a director under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986?”

Mr Courts said: “I know that a number of members will wish me to start talking about individual measures and I hope she will forgive me that I won’t do that.

“We will come to the House and explain what that package of measures are.

“We are quite clear, however, about the position of that individual in question… his position is untenable and he ought to go.”

Robert Courts (House of Commons/PA) (PA Wire)

Labour MP Clive Efford (Eltham) said: “The chief executive of P&O came into this place where the laws of this land are made and told us that he broke those laws, and did so in a premeditated way, then compounds the situation by going on to then show scant regard for safety measures on his ships, resulting in them being impounded.

“So, knowing all that, doesn’t the minister think that this chief executive deserves to be summarily dismissed and shouldn’t he be making sure that is done immediately, regardless of any package that he is going to bring forward?”

Mr Courts replied that he shared the “state of shock” about Mr Hebblethwaite’s answers to a special committee of MPs on March 24, in which the chief executive admitted the company broke the law by not consulting trade unions before sacking workers.

The minister added: “The Secretary of State (Grant Shapps) and I also share the view that his position is untenable and said that to him that he ought to go, and would urge him to take that very seriously on board.”

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh also called on the Government to seek Mr Hebblethwaite’s “removal under the Directors Disqualification Act and all those who authorised this unlawful action”.

After the P&O chief’s evidence to a joint session of the Commons transport and business select committees, Transport Secretary Mr Shapps wrote to him saying the company has “one further opportunity” to reinstate the 800 sacked British workers on their previous wages.

Mr Courts told the Commons the letter was a chance for P&O Ferries to “pause and reconsider”.

He added: “That is because we will return to this House to announce a package of measures that will ensure that the outcomes P&O Ferries are seeking to achieve during this disastrous move to pay less than the minimum wage cannot be seen through.

“As a result, they will have no reason left not to reconsider this move.”