The row started after Haigh described P&O as a “rogue operator” in an interview with ITV on Wednesday, after it sacked nearly 800 seafarers in 2022 and replaced them with cheaper workers.
Asked whether she used the ferry service, she said: “I’ve been boycotting P&O Ferries for two-and-a-half years and I would encourage consumers to do the same.”
DP World insisted the move was needed for the survival of the ferry operator and to secure thousands of jobs.
Haigh’s comments in the interview coincided with the Department for Transport announcing new legislation aimed at protecting seafarers’ jobs from so-called “fire and rehire” practices of “rogue employers”.
In that announcement, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was quoted calling P&O Ferries’ prior actions “outrageous”.
But senior government figures have since told the BBC that they were incensed by the specific suggestion that consumers boycott the ferry firm.
Haigh’s comments also attracted criticism from the Conservatives, with shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake arguing Labour “don’t understand business”.
However, the Labour chair of the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee, Liam Byrne, defended Haigh.
She had been “absolutely right to say that the behaviour of P&O, owned by DP World, in the past has been completely unacceptable”, he said.
The row has exposed a tension between the new government’s desire to attract business and strengthen workers’ rights.
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