The boss of P&O Ferries – known for its fire-and-rehire of nearly 800 workers – has said he could not live on the less than £5-per-hour some of his staff are paid.

The ferry company is paying employees an average of £5.20 an hour, two years after making 786 people redundant, and rehiring cheaper workers, P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite told the Commons’ Business and Trade Committee.

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Some earn as little as £4.87 an hour, Mr Hebblethwaite added, as MPs on the committee presented him with evidence that some staff were paid as low as £2.90 an hour for their first eight hours of work.

During exchanges, committee chair Liam Byrne asked Mr Hebblethwaite: “Do you think you could live on £4.87 an hour?”

Mr Hebblethwaite replied: “No, I couldn’t,” before admitting he earned £508,000, including a bonus of £183,000 last year.

While he said he could not live on such pay, the CEO said the rates were “considerably ahead of international minimum standards”.

“These are international seafarers who we are, or our crewing agent is, recruiting from an international field, and we pay substantially ahead of the international seafaring minimum wage,” he added.

The UK national minimum wage is £11.44 since last month for people aged 21 and over.

But P&O Ferries uses maritime workers employed by an overseas agency, who work on ships which are foreign-registered in international waters, so the rates do not apply.

When he last appeared before the committee in March 2022, Mr Hebblethwaite said P&O Ferries workers would receive at least £5.15 every hour.

“People who could work anywhere in the world on any ship choose to come over to us and make a choice to come back,” he said on Tuesday.

Fire-and-rehire fallout

Despite the move to get rid of the nearly 800 staff in March 2022, Mr Hebblethwaite said P&O Ferries has always complied with national and international law.

That decision is still under investigation by the government.

While a criminal investigation conducted by the insolvency service concluded in August 2022 that it would not commence criminal proceedings, a civil investigation by the government body is ongoing.

“I confirmed that this decision was legal,” Mr Hepplethwaite added. “That is not to say I don’t regret it, I regret it. I am deeply sorry for the impact it had on 786 seafarers and their families. I wish we’d never had to have made that decision.

“We will never make that decision again.”

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Had it not been made, Mr Hebblethwaite said the operation of P&O Ferries would have been at risk.

“Without that difficult decision I would not be here today and we would not have been able to preserve the 2,000 jobs that we have been able to preserve.”

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Workers rights

Despite the widespread condemnation and political lens that zeroed in on the company, a seafarers’ rights charter has not yet been signed by P&O Ferries.

Mr Hebblethwaite couldn’t say whether workers were allowed to leave the ship during a 17-week working period and will write to the committee with an answer.

“I believe they are, but I believe there are some technicalities,” he answered.

Responding to the evidence, the head of the TUC (Trade Union Congress) Paul Nowak said: “It beggars belief that P&O Ferries has faced no sanctions for its misdeeds and that its parent company DP World has continued to be awarded government contracts.

“For too long, parts of our labour market have resembled the Wild West – with many seafarers particularly exposed to hyper-exploitation and a lack of enforceable rights.

“It’s time to drag our outdated employment laws into the 21st century. Without this, another P&O Ferries scandal is on the cards.”

The government is “gaslighting” the public about the state of the economy, the shadow chancellor will say on Tuesday.

Rachel Reeves is set to attack the Conservatives in a speech in the City of London, as the opposition takes the fight to the government on their own turf ahead of the general election.

Running a strong economy has long been the focus of Conservative election campaigns.

And with a raft of economic data coming out this week, Ms Reeves will be looking to get ahead of the government’s messaging – saying Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claiming the economy is improving is “deluded”.

The Bank of England will on Thursday make its latest decision on interest rates, with expectations that borrowing costs will be held at 5.25%.

The government wants this rate to come down, but the Bank sets the base rate independently.

There is also quarterly GDP data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) coming this week, which will likely show the UK coming out of the technical recession it has been in.

Taking the front foot in the wake of the drubbing the Conservatives took in the local elections, Ms Reeves will say: “By the time of the next election, we can, and should, expect interest rates to be cut, Britain to be out of recession and inflation to have returned to the Bank of England’s target.

“Indeed, these things could happen this month.

“I already know what the chancellor will say in response to one or all these events happening. He has been saying it for months now: ‘The economy is turning a corner,’ ‘our plan is working,’ ‘stick with us’.

“I want to take those arguments head on because they do not speak to the economic reality.”

She will add “During the local elections I travelled across the country. I spoke to hundreds of people. I listened to their stories.

“And when they hear government ministers telling them that they have never had it so good, that they should look out for the ‘feelgood factor,’ all they hear is a government that is deluded and completely out of touch with the realities on the ground.

“The Conservatives are gaslighting the British public.”

The shadow chancellor will say Labour will fight the election on the economy, point to previously announced policies such as a national wealth fund to deliver private and public investment, reform planning laws to build 1.5 million homes, and create 650,000 jobs in the UK’s industrial heartlands.

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Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden said: “The personnel may change but the Labour Party hasn’t. Rachel Reeves still hero-worships Gordon Brown, who sold off our gold reserves and whose hubris took Britain to the brink of financial collapse.

“Labour have no plan and would take us back to square one with higher taxes, higher unemployment, an illegal amnesty on immigration and a plot to betray pensioners, just like Gordon Brown did.”

An estate agency group backed by the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group is being put up for sale in the latest sign of corporate activity in the sector.

Sky News understands that LDC has hired bankers from Clearwater International to oversee a sale of Lomond Group.

A process is expected to kick off in the coming months, and should value Lomond at well over £100m, according to industry sources.

Lomond Group was created from the merger of Lomond Capital and Linley & Simpson in 2021, a deal which established a business with 22,000 properties under management.

The company has a particularly prominent presence in cities such as Aberdeen, Birmingham and Leeds.

It trades under brands such as Thornley Groves, Braemore and John Shepherd.

The prospective auction comes as speculation grows about a potential bid for Foxtons, the London-listed estate agent.

Foxtons was recently reported to have added bankers at Rothschild as financial advisers in anticipation of a bid.

A number of other chains are also expected to change hands in the coming months.

A spokesman for LDC declined to comment.