Jon Reynolds confronted with Government's P&O press release
A top Labour minister was left squirming this morning as he was confronted with a Labour’s huge blunder that nearly blew a ￡1 billion investment in the UK economy.
On Friday P&O Ferries owner DP World pulled their planned investment in its London Gateway container port after the deputy Prime Minister joined Louise Haigh in condemning the firm as an "unscrupulous" and "exploitative" employer.
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The condemnation came after their 2022 controversy in which they sacked 800 employees and replaced them with cheaper overseas agency staff.
A spokesman for the company then confirmed their major investment was under review - a huge blow to the Prime Minister as it was set to be one of the centrepieces of tomorrow’s summit.
Sir Keir Starmer is now struggling to contain the internal furore after Ms Rayner and Ms Haigh were accused of "student politics" that has hit real-world jobs and livelihoods.
READ MORE: Angela Rayner ‘hopping mad’ over Labour investment meltdown days before summit
Jonathan Reynolds struggled to explain the confusion (Image: BBC)
This morning Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds insisted that criticism of P&O Ferries is “not the government position”.
However he was left squirming after Laura Kuenssberg pulled up an official government press release condemning the firm as a rogue employer.
He argued: “It is not the government’s position to boycott them, but we are clear we do not want this country competing on fire and rehire, we are changing that.”
“We have got to make clear that we do not support fire and rehire, what we believe - and we are showing - is we can improve the Labour market, improve people’s employment rights, at the same time as attracting the kind of investments we need.”
Ms Kuenssberg cut him off to point out: “So hang on, you’ve just said clearly it’s not the government’s position that P&O and DP World are a ‘rogue operator’.”
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Ms Kuenssberg pulled up an official government press release (Image: BBC)
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“There was a government press release that said it was a ‘rogue employer’, that went out in the name of the government.”
At this point she confronted the Business Secretary with the press release, in which Louise Haigh said: “Rogue employers must not be given the green light to trample over the laws of our country”, before going on to name P&O Ferries.
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Ms Kuenssberg appeared confused that the Government put out the press release but is now saying it’s not Government policy.
Mr Reynolds said he was “happy to clarify that” and was speaking for the government on business issues as the Business Secretary.
He continued: “We have always been clear, what happened was wrong, that’s why we’re changing the law to make sure it can’t happen again.”