A UK Government minister has told MPs of his fury over travel company P&O's treatment of its staff.

The firm axed 800 seafarers today, without notice, telling them "cheaper alternatives" would fill their jobs instead. 

Addressing the Commons, Robert Courts, a junior minister in the Department for Transport, said the treatment of the workers had been "unacceptable".

He said: "These are hardworking, dedicated staff who have given years in service to P&O.

"The way they have been treated today is wholly unacceptable and my thoughts are first and foremost with them.

"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 way in which P&O have approached this issue - a point I have made crystal clear to P&O's management when I spoke to them earlier this afternoon.

"As I told Peter Hebblethwaite that I am extremely concerned, frankly angry, at the way workers have been treated today."

The MP added: "P&O also today inform us they will be suspending services for approximately a week to 10 days while they locate a new crew.

"The affected routes are Dover to Calais, Larne to Cairnryan, Dublin to Liverpool and Hull to Rotterdam.

"I know members right across the house will share my concern over the loss of these routes. I should stress that they are no say they are only temporary and that alternative provision will be provided by other operators to whom I am extremely grateful." 

The SNP's Gavin Newlands said that P&O's behaviour was "inhumane" and said the company which owns the firm, DP World, had a "shockingly bad record".

He said: "What P&O have done today in sacking 800 workers over Zoom without any notice or consultation, and dragging them from their place of work using handcuff-trained private security personnel, as well beyond even fore and rehire.

"Of course, our primary concern must be to the traumatised P&O staff and their families, now jobless having gone to work like any other day."

He called on the minister to "support the staff that remain aboard P&O vessels and call on P&O to end their attempts to forcibly remove staff."

Mr Newlands, the SNP's transport spokesman, added: "The villain in all of this is P&O and their parent company DP World, a company owned by anti- trade union oligarchs in Dubai with a shockingly bad track record and employment relations."

Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haig condenmed the situation as a "national scandal" and said the company had behaved like "thugs".

She said: "The action taken by P&O Ferries today is a national scandal. It is a betrayal of the workers that kept this country stocked throughout the pandemic.

"I have heard directly from the crew throughout the day - their lives upended. The jobs they depended on, scrapped. Workers are now left wondering how on earth they will put food on their family’s table, and the management did not even have the decency to tell them face-to-face.

"They were told this life-changing news on a pre-recorded video.

"There are images circulating of what we are told are handcuff trained security, some wearing balaclavas marching British crew off their ships.

"This is not a corporate restructure, it is not the way to go about business. It is beneath contempt – the action of thugs."

The UK Government is due to speak with trade unions this evening to discuss the crisis.