Good Morning Britain’s Susanna Reid grilled Business Minister Paul Scully as he skirted around the vote on the fire and rehire bill months ago, amid P&O Ferries’ staff switch up
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Susanna Reid questions Paul Scully ‘fire and rehire’
Susanna Reid of Good Morning Britain interviewed Paul Scully, MP, about his party’s approach towards the fire and rehire bills.
The Business Minister appeared on the ITV programme today, where he was questioned by Susanna and her co-presenter about P&O Ferries’ decision to fire and then rehire workers on much lower wages.
Although Mr Scully denied having voted against this bill, and insisted it never went up for a vote; Susanna later explained how the Minister was involved in the discussion. This is because ministers ran out on time before being able to vote for or against the bill.
Today, she shared her thoughts on the ITV Breakfast Show: “I used that time Mr Scully, if you’ll forgive me, to look up what happened with the fire and rehire bill. I just came across this article from one of the newspapers at the time.”
She explained how the bill detailed how ministers had stopped a fire- and hire bill from being passed, insisting that legislation was not the right way to handle it. The TUC also commented on it, stating that the government had chosen the side of ‘bad bosses.
“One Minister spoke for more than 40 minutes in the Chamber ensuring the private member’s Bill ran out of time and would not progress beyond its second reading,”Susanna read out a quote from TUC before adding her own: “The minister? Paul Scully. You’re the person who spoke so long the legislation then ran out of time to be considered further.”
Susanna’s claims were immediately addressed by him, and he added: “Two things. First of all, I could have spoken for five minutes that would have still run out of time on that Friday, but I’m afraid that it’s the TUC that have written that. Clearly that’s going to be a slanted agenda.
“Barry Gardiner was the Bill’s original proposer. I couldn’t speak for nearly as long as him. Barry Gardner said it wouldn’t have banned fire and/or rehire but that he did not run that campaign.”
He continued: “The Bill would have meant that many businesses would have had to restructure fairly because of their financial situation.
“So likely it would have led to more job losses at the end of the day.”
