The government quietly rekindled its relationship with P&O owner DP World just eight months after ministers decried its “brutal” and illegal sacking of almost 800 workers in Britain, newly released records reveal.
In March 2022, then prime minister Boris Johnson promised that the firm, which is ultimately owned by Dubai’s ruling royal family, “aren’t going to get away with it” after it summarily dismissed hundreds of workers with a pre-recorded four-minute video.
The then transport secretary Grant Shapps called for P&O boss Peter Hebblethwaite to resign after he admitted to MPs that he had deliberately broken the law by failing to consult his workers before firing them – and that he would do the same thing again.
