The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said today he believed that P&O Ferries had broken the law by sacking 800 staff with immediate effect via video message.

Boris Johnson said the UK government would take legal action against the company.

P&O, which is owned by Dubai ports firm DP World, said last week it had lost £100m in the last year and that without changes its business was not sustainable.

"It looks to me as though the company concerned has broken the law, and we will be taking action - and we will be encouraging workers themselves to take action under the 1996 Employment Rights Act," he told the Commons (see Labour Party vote & related story).

P&O Ferries operated four routes: Dover to Calais; Hull to Rotterdam; Liverpool to Dublin; and Cairnryan in Scotland to Larne in Northern Ireland.

More from RTE News including Irish staff at P&O's terminal in Dublin Port.  

As Afloat previously reported on Sunday, P&O reopened sailings on the Liverpool-Dublin route (albeit using only one of two ropax ferries). This involved the Dutch-flagged Norbank, as these seafarers are not part of the dispute due to different employment law based in the Netherlands.