The best dramas in British broadcasting are only found on one channel these days. Parliament TV has hosted its fair share of unsavoury characters over the years but today a new villain joined the rogues’ gallery. Step forward P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite, who joins the likes of Philip Green, Fred Goodwin and Mike Ashley in being hauled up before a select committee for a ritual grilling. Hubris, folly and lashings of corporate jargon were on the menu today as Hebblethwaite – whose firm sacked 800 staff last week – was duly sliced, diced and skewered before a panel of distinctly unimpressed MPs.
Joint committee chairman Darren Jones got things off to a flying start when the Labour MP opened with this audacious gambit:
When I was reading your biography it seemed pretty light on your experience as a chief executive officer. Are you in this mess because you don’t know what you’re doing, or are you just a shameless criminal?
A stuttering Hebblethwaite failed to answer that particular doozy, merely mumbling something about the ‘opportunity to come and answer questions’ and a half-hearted apology to staff and their families.
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