Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor John McDonnell (Labour), on Wednesday, 25 May 2005, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 32 members in total.

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BRITTANY FERRIES

That this House is deeply concerned at the recent announcement by Brittany Ferries that it is to withdraw from the proposed acquisition of two P & O Ferries vessels on the Western Channel; notes that P & O Ferries has stated that it intends to discontinue services on the Portsmouth to Le-Havre route from September; believes that the decision of the Office of Fair Trading not to approve the acquisition of these ships by Brittany Ferries, and the consequent lengthy referral to the Competition Commission, damaged the UK ferry industry and led to the potential dismissal of 270 UK seafarers; further notes that if neither operator continues services there will be no ferry service from the United Kingdom to Caen, Cherbourg or Le Havre and that these dismissals are in addition to a further 900 redundancies for United Kingdom seafarers who have also been dismissed as part of the same exercise within the P & O Ferries Group; and therefore calls on the Secretary of State for Transport to intervene in this matter with the companies concerned and to ensure that the United Kingdom ferry industry retains a core of United Kingdom seafaring skills.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

230 

Session

2005-06

Other sponsors

Harry Cohen

Brian H Donohoe

Gwyn Prosser

Jeremy Corbyn

Mike Hancock

Subjects

Ferries Mergers Shipping P&O Brittany Ferries

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk