SACKED ferry workers have won the backing of MPs from across the country in their long-running "fight for justice" campaign.

Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser gave the battle a boost on the 15th anniversary of the strike by tabling a parliamentary motion of support in the House of Commons.

Veteran left wing Labour MP Dennis Skinner and the former minister Peter Kilfoyle were among the 20 Members of Parliament who added their names to the motion in the first 24 hours of its publication.

Mr Prosser has been supporting the battle to get justice for the 2,000 seafarers sacked by P&O during the 1988-89 seamen's strike in Dover. He was a serving seafarer at the time of the industrial action.

Mr Prosser said: "The dispute was long and bitter and, as so often happens in such conflicts, it split communities and divided families. Local people had lost their livelihoods while taking official industrial action to defend their conditions and retain safety standards."

"They hadn't been pressing for bigger pay packets or making unjust demands on their employer - they were just fighting for the right to negotiate a just settlement and they were arbitrarily sacked without the right of appeal or recourse to any form of compensation."