It’s great being in opposition, you can come out with all sorts of guff. Being in government is a different thing, though, as deputy PM Angela Rayner has just discovered.
Angela Rayna should have been more circumspect when discussing P&O’s employment practices (Image: Getty)
Too many in the Labour party are keen on striking poses that will please the trade unions and party faithful, and they don’t seem to care about the consequences. Angela Rayner is right at the top of that list. She takes pride in being “mouthy”.
That’s how she got into politics in the first place. While a care worker she was made union rep because in her own words: “I was mouthy and would take no messing from management.”
Frankly, if I was in the same union as Angela Rayner, I’d vote for her to be my union rep, too. Stick it to the management and all that.
She’d be brilliant at it.
Unfortunately, sticking it to the management isn’t such a good pose to strike, when you are the bloomin’ management. In case nobody told her, she’s helping her boss Keir Starmer run the country.
Rabble rousing statements designed to work the party faithful into a froth of anti-capitalist anger can have brutal consequences when other people catch wind of them.
Mouthy Rayner has just lost the UK a cool £1billion in much-needed overseas investment into the UK economy.
There’s a cost to allowing her to stomp around saying what she wants, and other people are paying for it in their jobs.
I bet Rayner and transport secretary Louise Haigh felt like they were sticking it to the man when they described ferries company P&O as “unscrupulous” and “exploitative” this week.
They singled out the company while vowing to close a “legal loophole” that P&O allegedly sued to sack almost 800 workers in 2022.
I bet the unions loved it.
And you know what, I’m sure they had a point. A whole heap of big businesses don’t treat their workers like they should.
There’s nothing wrong in protesting about that.
But when you’re in government, you have to handle things a bit more delicately. For example, by introducing laws in Parliament, not hurling targeted abuse at alleged offenders, which is what Rayner and Haigh have just done.
I’m sure they feel proud of sticking to their left-wing principles. But the result is that Labour has just inflicted even more needless economic damage on the country.
P&O owner DP World has just put a planned £1billion expansion of one of Britain’s biggest container hubs on hold after Rayner’s attack.
It’s even more embarrassing than that.
By happy coincidence, PM Keir Starmer
is making a big push to boost overseas investment to the UK, convening a summit next week.
DP World had been planning to announce its investment in London Gateway port at this very summit.
Now there will be no announcement. The planned investment is “under review”, according to Bloomberg news. DP World chief Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem won’t even be attending Starmer’s summit.
Good work, Angela. I bet your boss is thrilled.
The UK desperately needs to encourage investment and growth. Its Budget attack on higher earners has already scared enough people away from the UK.
Is Labour now planning to insult the businesses who are still investing here, one by one?
Sir Keir is desperate to reposition the UK as a country that is open for business to boost overseas investment. That task would be easier if he could ask Angela Rayner to think before she opens her mouth.
