The P&O boss was asked if he could live on £4.87 an hour. “No, I couldn’t,” he replied.

He also admitted that last year he was paid a salary of £325,000 and received a bonus of £183,000 last April.

The ferry group gained notoriety two years ago when it made 786 staff redundant before replacing them with people on lower wages.

“I regret it and I am deeply sorry for the impact it had on 786 seafarers and their families,” he said.

“Let me be absolutely clear, we would not make that decision again.”

But he also said the decision had been necessary to save the company.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said Mr Hebblethwaite “admitted that he couldn’t live on this poverty rate of pay – but he expects his workers to survive on it”.

He added: “It beggars belief that P&O Ferries has faced no sanctions for its misdeeds and that its parent company DP World has continued to be awarded government contracts.”