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Video: McDonald dismantles ‘farcical’ P&O boss who admits company knowingly and intentionally broke law

Middlesbrough MP who quit Starmer’s front bench on principle over decent wages for low-paid people on fire again for mistreated seafarers

Middlesbrough Labour MP Andy McDonald was on fire today when, as a member of the parliamentary Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee, he had the opportunity to question Peter Hebblethwaite, the boss of P&O Ferries, which summarily sacked hundreds of workers last week without notice or consultation – and with handcuff-armed security guards to drag staff off their ships if they tried to mount industrial action against its banditry.

McDonald, a former Shadow Transport Secretary and Shadow Secretary for Employment Rights and Protections who quit Keir Starmer’s front bench after Starmer ordered him to argue at the party’s conference against the decent living wage demanded by unions, started his dismantling of Hebblethwaite by asking him whether he is grossly incompetent or a criminal.

And he went on to extract shocking and damning admissions that P&O’s management knew full well that they were breaking the law and chose to do it anyway:

Hebblethwaite, who admitted he is paid a massive salary and refused to say whether he would accept a bonus from P&O’s parent company if offered it, also claimed that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has been informed in advance about the planned criminality and did not intervene.

Mr McDonald told Skwawkbox:

P&O boss Peter Hebblethwaite’s astonishing admission that he knowingly decided to break the law of the land and not consult with unions over intended dismissals took the breath away.

He thinks breaking the law and gagging the workforce is simply the price of doing business. He, and his bosses Dubai’s DPWorld need to be shown that they have very badly miscalculated. But what this really shows is just how weak our company and employment laws are and if workers are ever to be treated with dignity and respect then they need a New Deal for Working People and they need it now.

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25 comments

      1. Paul – You should read it before giving us the benefit of your ‘knowledge’.

      2. SteveH
        Here is the 10 commitments I had to sign upto to get elected as Labour party leader
        Here are my donors who I declared after I was elected
        Here are the number of Jewish members I have persecuted and thrown out of the party
        Oh and yes I support the Nazis in Ukraine
        Odessa
        What say you Temporary Embarrassment

    1. EVERYONE should go to Parliament’s website. Search for Business & Trade Committee. Listen Again. U may also be able to do same on lbc news Global Player.

      The most ASTONISHING admissions were made by DP World’ & P&O Ferries’ bosses.
      It is an understatement to describe them as breathtaking. Eg 1️⃣ – Knew they were braking UK Law. 2️⃣ – by silence, HEPPELWAITE implied that he could not live on £5.50 per hr. 3️⃣ – Later, he added as if a good comeback: I gave the lowest figure £5.50 but we actually go up to £6.50🟥🟥🟥

      4️⃣ – re their “new operation model”; they “knew that NO union could agree” to their proposals🟥🟥🟥

      Yet another bombshell was that on 22nd November 2021, a Trade or Department of Transport minister, most likely GRANT SHAPPS spoke to Dubai Ports World, IN Dubai about their plans🟥🟥🟥

      DP WORLD man, though earlier having said the 22 November conversation was not minuted and he was not there, then proceeded to say the law breaking conditions were not discussed (in the said meeting / conversation he was not at).

      ✳️✳️✳️OTHER OBSERVATIONS:
      As per all Parliamentary Committee sessions eg re WMD Blair’s various wrong doings, many MPs on the committees desperately crave their moment in the limelight.
      RESULT? Excellent questions with revealing answers are not followed up. Chair person rushes to next questioner perhaps not to upset the MPs. Thus their publicity aims are put WAY above any public good.

      Plaudits to Nusrath Ghani🌟🌟🌟 (excuse spelling). ¿Nusrath / Nuzrath? was excellent. She allowed incriminating answers to breath.
      Conversely, the other MPs possibly trying to prove they had testosterone, were more keen to browbeat.

      In my opinion. Fewer QUALITY questions and SPECIFIC answers pursued would be infinitely more useful at ALL Committee Sessions
      ♦️✳️🛎♦️✳️🛎♦️✳️🛎

    2. I have used ASDA’s cheapest toilet rolls, worth more than ANY “Policy” or future “Manifesto” by the blood filled pens of the Neo-Labour Party TORIES! Why would anyone so much as bother to read them!? They will be destroyed within months of Fools being tricked into believing they are voting for ‘The UK Labour Party’, when The UK Labour Party is as dead as a Dodo!
      Neoliberals are TORIES! They are NOT Liberal, They are NOT bogus Centrist, They are NOT The Right of the Left, They are most certainly NOT, as per their BS Wiki Pages SOCIALISTS or LEFT LEANING! Neoliberals are Warmongers, Greedmongers, Anti Socialist and Anti The PEOPLE, TORIES! Blatantly obvious to those who are NOT Zombified MSM Sheeple who still sees a thing that does not exist! The Neo-Labour Party TORIES are a Parasite Party within the dead dried skin of The UK Labour Party from where they serve Themselves, The Trilateral Commission and The Elites, but NEVER The PEOPLE!
      So those Policies you keep puffing on about BlueSteveH would be worth more as ASDA’s cheapest loo rolls!

    1. To be fair a “Fire and re-Hire” Bill was attempted a
      few weeks ago but was (predictably) voted out
      by the Tories.

      It was well constructed and would have made the
      activities of P-and-O clearly illegal with no let-out
      even via the most devious lawyers.

    2. It is frightening how many are! I like Andy, Labour could have gone somewhere if he took over from Jeremy. He didn’t and Labour is Dead! The 10/15 Democratic Socialists clinging on for dear life, like Andy, are doing The PEOPLE a disservice, they talk and offer Democratic Socialist UK Labour Party, but they go back to The PEOPLE with hands full of Neoliberal Neo-Labour Party TORY! That is all they have to give! They need OUT! We will have to take the brunt until Democratic Socialists can finally get into parliament without a bunch of Conniving, Lying, Smearing, TORY Saboteurs! Whenever the fuck that will be! For now, all we can do is destroy the bastards who destroyed our one opportunity to end 47 years Thatcherite Neoliberal TORY HELL! We need them gone, showcasing as “The Left” or even “Labour”, they are NOT THAT! They are TORIES and nothing else! How people can see the proof of their work from the leaked report, never mind their crowing about it in the MSM, and then think for themselves, yeah I will go and vote for those bastards!
      DON’T WORSHIP THE BRAND/NAME “Labour” Labour is Dead!

      1. Surely even the staunchest, most loyal members find the actions of Headroom and his rainbow shirts can no longer justify Labour Party actions. Blatant racism against its MPs and supporters. A visceral hatred of anything mildly left and total subjugation to the Cowboys and the lobby. The silence when it comes to poverty, fire and rehires, our farce of health service and scornful treatment of our elderly and young. Tumbleweed with baubles. Now we see that the opposition supports Nazis. Some holes do no have a rock bottom, yet our foreign correspondent can say the rainbow world is fine because he has a poll to prove everything is just dandy.

      2. People have lost the ability to think, that that is all done via MSM! They see the key word “Labour” and start to groan and walk into walls!
        For me, the most frightening thing was how instantly millions of Russophobes were created, the injustice and hypocrisy of The West and millions of people have been flung wide open, all the Mollycoddling of the Blond Haired Blue Eyed Nazis, while Africa and the Middle East are still Bleeding Red Blood just like that of The Blond Haired, Blue Eyed Nazis. BlueKeef couldn’t speed off to Ukraine any faster, Palestine? Sudan? Yemen? West Papua? etc? etc? etc!!!? Sorry, NO BLOND HAIR, BLUE EYES or WHITE SKINS “JUST LIKE US”!!!!! It’s a Fucking Mess, Wobbly! It’s a Fucking Mess, and it is going to get messier! We better hope gods and fairies exist because, by gods and fairies, we’ll need them when BlueKeef and the Starmerstruppen step into Nr10!

        I wanted to book a hospital appointment online, it was a confusing clerical error, but anyway I had no passcode, so I thought that I would use my NHS account instead, they wanted my Passport/Driving licence followed by a scan of my face to match them up!
        Do you think that is a necessary requirement to book a Urology Appointment? The Bastards are Harvesting The NHS for Data and Facial Recognition!
        If we ever get a body that will oversee factual data on Social Health, we would be horrified is there even an independent body we can trust to find out how many Homeless, How many Rough Sleepers, how many of those died and of what cause, or Suicide Statistics and how many are directly related to Austerity and the Social Crisis!

  1. Andy Mcdonald
    That’s you off the front bench then
    Can you ask JC and the Unions to stand up for the Labour party
    P&O is small fry by comparison, there are 800 who die at the hands of the DWP every year
    Regards

    1. Doug, thanks for highlighting DWP deaths. Ther are very many. Yet another strand of our tragedy is those with MORE than enough access to public, indeed INTERNATIONAL platforms, CHOOSE to remain as good as absent and silent. WORSE yet, STILL they actively start more “initiatives” to have us read “amongst ourselves.” DISGRACEFUL for anyone, more so one with DECADES of experience.

      Doug it is that persistent immature culture that caused this tragedy. No one hit us over the head to have us hand them the party. That was a choice taken by those we gave OPEN FULL support. And until we own up to that, this tragedy will get worse.

      The grossly DISGRACEFUL predictable CHOICE by SIR Keith Starmer to provide no opposition to Johnson led Blue Tories, is matched, even surpassed by those who “lead” the “Left”, have ENOUGH access to the media platforms including Skwawkbox.org yet refuse to speak ir write even a paragraph here. The same type chase and cling themselves to every virtuous cause they can find abroad… hundreds of causes, HUNDREDS only to whisper “solidarity” and maintain the cultish myth that they are doing something useful. Until we point out the disgraceful behaviour, things will get worse.

      Even recently, imagine with all we can see, RIGHT HERE AT HOME, some throw a truckload of warm spit on the enthusiasm of “the many”, by asking them to effectively WITHDRAW from any meaningful action, and write whining vignettes to ourselves. WORSE yet about a theory. No action. More pathetic navel gazing / reading.

      That is a deliberate attempt to encourage “the many” to feel nothing can be done except talk “amongst ourselves”. That is a genuinely held view even put in print in Tribune. Question, why occupy an important office / position, attract MOUNTAINS of support, then actively neuter the potential of that support.

      The status quo needs nothing more than such, especially when successfully embedded amongst us. Nothing will change until WE change that.
      🟧❌✳️❌🟧✳️❌🟧✳️

      1. windchime – Or maybe there isn’t enough of you to make any impact under FPTP. Hopefully the penny will drop one day.

      2. signpost not windchimes
        Sanctions have gone up from 5,000 a month to 50,000 a month in last 3 months
        Deaths within 28 days of a DWP decision can be traced but no one does anything about it

      3. Doug very true. That is absolutely DREADFUL for those directly AND indirectly concerned and HEARTBREAKING for people like you, me and many Skwawkbox.org readers. It’s only one thread of the tragedy Doug. That’s why i find it so painful, the waste of a once in a lifetime’s opportunity for meaningful change. Even more distressing is feeling in the language that genuine well meaning people REFUSE to consider that WE need to change for change to be possible. We cannot allow the hopeless victim bunker culture to continue. It’s also very odd that we claim to want to change the world but call words of the establishment dogs “attacks” while Craig Murray was imprisoned, Julian is imprisoned, and suffers, Mandela was imprisoned and suffers, but we are expected to say sweet nothings amongst ourselves. 🟧💭🟧💭🟧💭

      4. SteveH
        Once Red Tories reach the promised land and we get our party back then FPTP will work very well for us

      5. Doug – So you keep saying. 🥱 Where is the credible alternative?

    2. there are 800 who die at the hands of the DWP every year

      Every year? Or are you perhaps a zero shy?

  2. Dignity & Respect for Working People!!!! Sir Stasi Starmer prefers ordinary working people to work for nothing.

  3. SteveH25/03/2022 AT 12:13 AM
    Doug – So you keep saying. 🥱 Where is the credible alternative?

    You keep parroting that question , ad nauseam.

    Yet we’re all toerags because we neither support nor will vote smarmerism.

    What alternative does the serial pledge-breaker, abstainer and toerag enabler, keef, offer? Here’s a clue:

    SteveH23/03/2022 AT 3:46 PM
    The manifesto for the next GE hasn’t been published yet.

    Oh, silly me, there’s a green paper that isn’t worth a carrot because not only will it not go through – thanks to keefs’ 2nd ref shithousery handing the toerags their majority – he’s also a proven lying shyster with zero concern for the working classes, so even if he WAS in a position to push it through, the shithouse would abstain and sack any MP that voted for it.

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