P&O Ferries has suspended all of their sailings over the Easter weekend – affecting thousands of holidays for Brits.

Brits have already faced queues up to nine hours in Dover after P&O Ferries sacked 800 of their staff at short notice.

This has led to the suspension of P&O Ferries services, and despite them hoping to restart this weekend, have confirmed sailings will not be able to go ahead as the ships are still being detained due to safety fears.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed that they were detaining the Pride of Kent ship after it found "additional deficiencies including in safety systems and crew documentation," along with The Spirit of Britain ship.

P&O Ferries tweeted last night: "Dover-Calais: April 15 to April 18. Our Passenger services are suspended this weekend. We sincerely apologise.

"For travel April 15-18 please re-book directly with another operator before arriving. DFDS are not able to transfer P&O customers on their ships."

DFDS has warned passengers not to turn up to try and sail on their ships, as they have no availability for P&O travellers.

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They also wrote on social media: "DFDS has no availability for P&O customers between April 15, 00.01 and April 18, 23.59. 

"Please do not proceed to port without a confirmed reservation, contact P&O Ferries for alternative travel arrangements."

DFDS director of capacity Chris Parker previously warned: "We cannot take a full load of our own passengers and then have more passengers from P&O, we simply don't have the capacity.

"We took the decision that we would be better off to focus on our own passengers, and not disappoint P&O passengers arriving at the port."

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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps yesterday warned of even worse travel disruption over the Easter weekend, especially in Dover, and expressed "concern" over the operators' staff shortages.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the Transport Secretary said: "I think certainly this weekend will be extremely busy on our roads, potentially at our ports – of course, particularly at Dover, where P&O disgracefully sacked all of their staff and then attempted to run ships which wouldn't have been safe with the replacement below minimum wage staff they tried to hire quickly – and we know that none of their ships are running at the moment.

"So I do expect there to be disruption, with no thanks to P&O there."

Mr Shapps also said: "I am very concerned that the operators – I'm talking about the airlines, the airports, the ports – do ensure that they get back to strength and quickly."

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Brits are facing a number of holiday problems, including cancelled flights, long airport queues and delayed passport renewals.

Families are waiting more than the 10 recommended weeks for new passports due to a record high of applications.

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