How Hull is Spring Statement’s defining test as Rish Sunak downplays cost of living crisis and P&O Ferries jobs scandal – Tom Richmond

P&O Ferries must shape up or ship out of Hull following unlawful sacking of 800 seafarers – Dame Diana Johnson

Cities like Hull which is reeling from the shock decision of P&O Ferries a week ago to sack 800 seafarers across Britain and replace them with foreign agency workers on as little as £1.82 an hour.

I declare an interest. I moved to Hull from Exeter 20 years ago and remain in awe of its community ethos, work ethic and desire of families to further their prospects. They’re proud people who use food banks and seek help as a last resort.

Two decades after The Deep aquarium became a symbol of Hull’s renaissance following generations of political – and economic – neglect, it is at the forefront of Britain’s green energy revolution.

Sunak knows this. In a carefully choreographed visit last May, he visited the Siemens offshore wind plant in Hull. Even in a Covid lockdown, the tour was the hallmark of a very PR-savvy politician. What it did not do, however, is give him insight into the hardship facing families in a city where the average annual salary is £30,000 compared to £38,000 nationally.

As expected, Sunak’s Spring Statement doubled down on the pre-announced £150 council tax rebate and £200 loan from energy suppliers as inflation reaches a 30-year high of 6.2 per cent.

Significant undertakings, the Treasury’s intention is for town halls to give eligible residents £150 next month via the direct debt mechanism. It is estimated that 60,000 families in Hull don’t have these arrangements because their finances are so stretched – what is Sunak’s solution to a growing phenomenon known as the ‘poverty premium’? Near silence.

It is the same with energy costs. Hull West MP Emma Hardy has been campaigning on behalf of all those families, including pensioners, who use prepayment meters. She was told on February 25 that the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy “will consult in the spring”.

Yet, when she pressed Dr Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, on Monday for an update, the Minister responsible for welfare actually said that this issue was not a matter for her department.

I can imagine how that will have gone down on the streets of Hull. No wonder many believe Sunak, a self-made public figure, needs more ‘‘real world’’ experience because the headline cut in fuel duty, and £3,000 rise in the National Insurance threshold, will make little difference to carers and cleaners already working round-the-clock for meagre wages as Britons suffer the biggest falls in living standards for 60 years. People need help now and the Spring Statement’s key test is the Treasury’s ability to get financial support to those with the greatest needs as quickly as possible.

It is the same with the Government’s supposed flagship ‘levelling up’ policy – people in Hull, and across the North, will remain sceptical until there is fairer funding for schools and other key public services. Two decades ago, Hull’s schools were at the very bottom of national league tables.

That, thankfully, is no longer the case. Yet, despite improvements in academic attainment, the city – like so many – is struggling to recruit and retain talented teachers so that youngsters have better opportunities than their parents and previous generations.

It’s why Sunak – in fact all Ministers – should be immersing themselves in a city like Hull for a weeks at a time to gain a better understanding of these societal challenges. Just because the city has not had a Tory MP since Michael Coulson was elected in Hull North in 1959 is no excuse.

And it is why the Chancellor’s response to the P&O Ferries scandal was misjudged after a Government briefing paper, seen by The Yorkshire Post, appeared to accept 800 job losses as a fait accompli. “These changes will align them (P&O) with other companies in the market who have undertaken large reduction in staff previously,” it said.

Yet Sunak appears content for the ferry firm’s Dubai-based parent company DP World to play a pivotal role in his post-Brexit freeports policy.

How can he justify this – and the firm’s ability to circumvent the minimum wage and employment laws because its vessels are registered overseas – when port cities like Hull know, from painful experience, that no short cuts can ever be taken with maritime safety? And what message does this send out to other unscrupulous employers?

As such, Hull is a litmus test for this Spring Statement. If families avoid extreme hardship, it will be counted as a success. If not, Rishi Sunak won’t have just betrayed Hull. He will have left the twin concepts of levelling up and compassionate conservativism all at sea.

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