LONDON (Reuters) – Port and logistics firm DP World has paused a 1 billion pound investment in Britain after ministers criticised practices at its subsidiary P&O, Sky News reported on Friday, in a blow to the government on the eve of a flagship investment summit.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hoping to use Monday’s international investment summit to pitch his goals of generating growth and providing the stability that companies need to invest.
But his government’s “pro-business, pro-worker” initiative faces a stern test after the criticism by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and transport minister Louise Haigh of P&O Ferries appeared to disrupt preparations for the summit.
Dubai-based DP World are reviewing the planned investment that had been due to be a major plank of Monday’s announcements for the summit, Sky News and Bloomberg reported. The reports also said that DP World’s chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, had pulled out of his planned attendance at the summit.
DP World declined to comment on the reports.
In 2022, Britain’s P&O Ferries made 800 staff redundant with immediate effect and suspended crossings for the next few days, prompting a backlash from politicians and unions who criticised plans to hire cheaper agency workers instead.
P&O at the time said it had to make swift and significant changes because the business was not sustainable otherwise.
On Wednesday, Rayner and Haigh announced new protections for seafarers, and ended what they said was a loophole used by P&O. Rayner said the government was on a mission “so no employer can abuse the system,” while Haigh said the mass sackings were a “national scandal”.
In an interview with ITV News, Haigh called P&O a “rogue operator” and said she had been boycotting them for years.
Asked by broadcasters about DP World’s decision to pull the investment as a result of the comments by ministers, Starmer declined to comment, and pointed to a raft of other investments announced by the government in the run-up to the summit.
The transport ministry and the business ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The opposition Conservative Party said that the dispute showed that Labour ministers don’t understand business.
“On the eve of this much vaunted inward investment event, this is a body blow for the Government,” the party’s business spokesperson Kevin Hollinrake said.
($1 = 0.7648 pounds)
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Andrew Heavens)