RMT’s General Secretary Mick Lynch has openly declared his preference for aggressive tactics. He said the government believe “the working class are weak” and declared the union would organise a series of rail strikes in 2022.

In an interview with the Guardian, he said: “The unions have got to make a militant stand – and use the strike weapon wherever it’s appropriate. People are still joining this union in full knowledge of industrial disputes coming forward – they want to defend what they’ve got.”

Mr Lynch was the man behind the tube strike which bought London to a standstill in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He has wasted no time in trying to make the narrative one of Conservative failure to stand up against overweening bosses.

Speaking at the protest in Dover, Mr Lynch said: “They told me this yesterday that they’d known about this initiative on Wednesday evening and they didn’t lift a finger. They didn’t even lift the telephone to tell us that this would be happening so that we could defend our people.”

In a statement released to the press, he said: “The fact that the government knew the day before that a foreign owned company planned to cause major disruption to UK ports but did nothing to prevent it is shocking.”

Earlier in the week, Mr Lynch lumped the Dubai backers of P&O and the Tory party together as he launched a tirade against “gangster capitalism”.

He said: “We need to send a message to ruthless employers and the government alike, that when working people are treated so abysmally, there is a militant response from the trade union movement.”

Most of the crowd in Dover was filled with trade unionists, many of whom had travelled to Dover.

Robert Williams, a Unite member living in London, took the train to the south coast.

The 52-year-old grandfather of three said: “I don’t want these workers to think they’re on their own. The labour and trade union movement around the country needs to show that.

“People are absolutely disgusted. Every time we think an employer can’t get any lower, and then something like this happens.”

Ms Elphicke, meanwhile, was targeted despite trying to stand up for workers.

Speaking about the sackings shortly before the hecklers arrived, she said: “It is not acceptable, it’s not a way to behave. 

“I’m really clear that they should think again, that they should be making the jobs back and having sensible discussions.”

She refused to say whether she would buy a ticket for a P&O ferry again, and added: “We looked at whether it’s possible to get back any of that taxpayer money that’s supported, P&O through those hard times, and then they turn around and stab us in the back.”

Unfortunately, the colour of her rosette counted for more than those words.