Agency worker hired to replace P&O staff quits over mass sacking

A seafarer who was unwittingly hired by an agency to replace sacked P&O staff at Cairnryan port said he felt like a traitor when he realised what the job entailed.

Mark Canet-Baldwin, from Hull, said the firm gave him no information about the vessel he would be working on – and only realised it was P&O when he saw the docked ship.

He and other agency workers walked away from the job when they heard that staff were being sacked on board.

They had been waiting for hours accompanied by a security detail of a dozen guards who Mark said were equipped with handcuffs.