SOUTHAMPTON port terminal operator DP World is no longer a partner in the body behind the Solent Freeport following the controversy over the sacking of 800 P&O Ferries workers.

A government minister said the Dubai-owned company, which runs the city's deep water cargo terminal, had left the board of the freeport project and was no longer a partner in the freeport consortium.

The £2billion freeport scheme, given the go-ahead last year, aims to bring more than 25,000 jobs to the region by creating economic zones where lower taxes and less red tape apply.

But there had been calls for DP World to lose all government contracts, including involvement in two freeport schemes, after the laying-off without notice of 800 crew at its P&O Ferries business.

The company did not go through the required consultation procedures and is replacing the crew with lower-paid agency staff.

The news that DP World had left the freeport board and would not be a partner in the consortium came in answers to questions tabled in the House of Lords by crossbench peer Lord Macpherson and former Green Party leader Baroness Bennett.

Both had asked what plans the government had to review DP World’s contracts for the Solent and Thames freeports.

In answer to Lord Macpherson’s questions, the levelling up minister Lord Greenhalgh said: “On March 28 2022, DP World resigned from the Solent Freeport Board and are no longer a partner in the freeport consortium.

“The government is working to urgently understand the facts of what happened in this case and establish whether DP World are in breach of any of the requirements on them as investors in the Thames Freeport.

“Freeports are expected to receive around £25million seed capital, paid to a local authority and to be invested at sites within the freeport geography. Release of funding is subject to approval of a full business case and currently, no full business cases have been approved.”

Replying to Baroness Bennett, he added: “The business secretary wrote to the Insolvency Service on March 23 asking them to urgently undertake a thorough enquiry into the actions of P&O Ferries.

"Following this review the Insolvency Service confirmed on April 1 they have initiated both formal criminal and civil investigations into the circumstances surrounding the recent redundancies made by P&O Ferries.”

DP World declined to comment. 

Southampton Test's Labour MP, Alan Whitehead, said of DP World's exit as freeport board member and partner: "I know that this is something that Southampton's Labour councillors called for last month and I think it is the right course of action given the blatant disregard for workers rights that DP World owned P&O Ferries has shown.

"I think their absence from the freeport board will give people some assurances that the opportunities promised under the freeport project won't be at the expense of workers in our city."

A spokesperson for the Solent Freeport said: "We can confirm that DP World is no longer on the board of the Solent Freeport."