£1bn investment row with P&O owners was a ‘little thing’, claims Business Secretary
The Business Secretary has downplayed the row over a £1 billion deal with the owners of P&O Ferries as a “little thing”.
DP World only confirmed it would press ahead with its investment in a new freeport after Sir Keir Starmer publicly disowned comments made by Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary.
Ms Haigh had called P&O Ferries a “rogue operator”, prompting DP World to threaten to withdraw from this week’s International Investment Summit prior to the climbdown by No 10.
She encouraged consumers to boycott P&O Ferries following its decision two years ago to sack 800 staff and plan to replace them with cheaper foreign workers.
When asked about the row on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, said Sir Keir’s response proved he was running a “serious” administration.
“We are stopping fire and rehire, DP World is coming to the summit [and] the investment will go ahead,” Mr Reynolds said. “We’re a serious Government, we know sometimes little things like this crop up. We’ll fix them – we’ll fix it and we have.
“And you just have to step back and say this is a Government that’s improving people’s security at work across the board and attracting the key flagship investments necessary to take this country forward. That’s what it’s about.”
In a separate interview on Sunday, Mr Reynolds confirmed Downing Street “had to have a conversation” with the operator after Ms Haigh’s comments.
He told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “With DP World, what happened with P&O Ferries was wrong, the government at the time – the Conservative government – believed it was wrong. The problem was it was legal. So we are changing that situation, and where a company can operate within that framework we can work with them.”
Mr Reynolds went on to distance himself from Ms Haigh’s calls for a boycott, insisting “that’s not the Government’s position”. When asked how close Britain had come to losing the £1billion investment, he replied: “Look, we’ve had to have a conversation following some of the press reports.
“It’s part of a set of investments that are truly eye-catching that are underpinned by the fact the UK has a political stability it didn’t have before the election.
“We understand the responsibility that we have… All I will say is that we have a summit going ahead with an incredible set of investments.”
‘Politically stupid’
John Caudwell, the billionaire Phones 4U founder who backed Labour at the election having previously donated to the Conservatives, labelled Ms Haigh’s comments “politically stupid”.
“When the Labour minister says ‘rogue operators like P&O’, I don’t know the ins and outs of that,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
“But what I do know is it’s politically stupid to condemn somebody when you’re wanting 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 the business.”
It came after Mr Caudwell claimed it would not make “any difference at all” if Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, raised income tax for the wealthiest Britons by 5p at the Budget this month. Ms Reeves has repeatedly ruled out such an increase.
Mr Reynolds was also challenged on the decision to leave Elon Musk off the guestlist for the summit after his claims about the Southport riots that took place over the summer.
The world’s richest man, who owns Tesla and X, predicted civil war in Britain and shared personal attacks on Sir Keir, accusing him of presiding over a “two-tier” justice system.
Mr Reynolds told Sky: “I’m not going to comment on particular invitations for particular personnel, I’m not going to comment on the reasons for any specific person.”
He added: “This is about who can bring the kind of investments that can make the biggest difference to the UK and working people’s lives.
“I know that everyone wants to come, I do understand that. Not everyone can come and it wouldn’t be right to go through the decisions for individual people.”
Last month, Musk responded to Sir Keir’s snub over the summit by saying no one should visit Britain because it releases paedophiles from prison.
Monday’s gathering of business leaders is seen as a key moment for the Government to secure foreign investment, with Sir Keir hoping to attract tens of billions in funding.