News
Kate Plummer
Mar 18, 2022
Independent
Nigel Farage has been roasted after complaining Brexit isn't working out how he wanted it to.
After learning that 800 P&O Ferries workers had been sacked without notice with plans to replace them with cheaper agency staff, the former Brexit Party MEP took to Twitter to give his views on the matter and moan about "cheap foreign workers".
He said: "It is disgrace that cheap foreign workers will replace 800 sacked P&O Ferries staff. Brexit was about putting our people first."
It has been reported that no French workers lost their jobs and that.
“There are two busloads at King George Dock in Hull of cheap agency workers from eastern Europe who are hoping to be boarding the vessel to sail the ferry this evening,” Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East, told LBC.
During the referendum campaign, Brexiteers said Brexit and ending the freedom of movement would help British workers and prevent their wages from being undercut by people from other countries.
The business said: "We have made a £100m loss year-on-year, which has been covered by our parent DP World. This is not sustainable. Without these changes, there is no future for P&O Ferries."
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But MPs including former transport minister Sir John Hayes criticised the "capricious, careless, callous" decision by P&O Ferries, and suggested the government should "recover any monies granted to P&O during the pandemic" in a bid to reverse it.
He added: "Don't let anyone tell me this is the free market. The free market put little girls in factories and boys down mines, and both at risk on the high seas; we thought those dark days had gone - P&O are either too dim to see that or too dastardly to know it."
Maritime minister Robert Courts said he was "frankly angry at the way workers have been treated". He told the House of Commons P&O Ferries' actions were "wholly unacceptable".
"Reports of workers being given zero notice and escorted off their ships with immediate effect while being told cheaper alternatives would take up their roles, shows the insensitive nature by which P&O approached this issue," he said.
After Farage brought Brexit into the mix, people on Twitter gave him a thorough roasting:
Brexit. The gift that keeps on giving. UK workers loose out while France and Irish P&O workers job are safehttps://twitter.com/nigel_farage/status/1504491186496720898\u00a0\u2026— Conor Riordan (@Conor Riordan) 1647585652
Really surprising Brexit has failed here after it's been such a success for fishermen, farmers, manufacturers and any business exporting to the EU. Can't work it out.— Michael\ud83c\udf31 \u24cb #FBPE.\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Michael\ud83c\udf31 \u24cb #FBPE.\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1647534365
French P & O workers have reportedly all kept their jobs. Time for you, Mr Farage, to take responsibility for the havoc you helped unleash and the lives you have ruined.https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1504491186496720898\u00a0\u2026— Otto English (@Otto English) 1647592800
Very decent of you to admit, albeit late, that Brexit was very obviously a load of utter bollocks.— Tom Peck (@Tom Peck) 1647595308
Irony comes right after bronzey and goldy\u2026 https://twitter.com/nigel_farage/status/1504491186496720898\u00a0\u2026— Lord Stuzi of Mancunia \ud83d\udc1d\ud83d\udc1d\ud83d\udc1d (@Lord Stuzi of Mancunia \ud83d\udc1d\ud83d\udc1d\ud83d\udc1d) 1647593784
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