THE government must nationalise ferry services to hit bosses “where it hurts,” transport union TSSA demanded today after P&O Ferries sacked 800 workers without notice.

The move would “safeguard trade and travel” and send the strongest message that Britain “will not stand for bully boy tactics,” the union’s general secretary Manuel Cortes stressed.

In unprecedented scenes on Thursday, P&O Ferries, which was purchased by Dubai-based DP World in 2019, fired hundreds of staff with immediate effect via a pre-recorded video message, citing financial pressures. 

It then deployed private security bearing handcuffs to evict workers while replacement agency crews, made up of cheaper foreign workers, waited on docksides.

The RMT and Nautilus unions, which represent most of the staff, held major demos in Dover, Hull and Liverpool today as voices from across the political spectrum condemned the firm’s “outrageous” actions.

Mr Cortes accused P&O Ferries of “holding our country to ransom by halting vital ferry trade routes so they can illegally and immorally sack their staff.”

He called on Tory ministers to “stand up to P&O bullies who are controlled” by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, DP World’s owner.

“The government should nationalise these vital ferry routes which allow people and goods to get to and from our country — P&O must be hit where it hurts!”

Most ferry services were previously under public ownership until being sold off by Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government in the 1980s along with many other key transport utilities.

Mr Cortes added: “The sultan living far away from our land has hardly got the best interests of our country or P&O’s staff at heart.

“The government should simply take over the running of these routes — sequestrate the vessels if required — so that goods and people can continue to flow from and to our shores and also keep P&O’s dedicated, hard-working and loyal staff in jobs.

“And the government must act to tighten our employment laws and heavily increase the penalties that bosses who break them face.

“If what happened turns out to be legal then it’s imperative the law is changed so that it no longer is.

“Everyone is appalled — they must not get away with it and it must never be allowed to happen again.”