Relief for Carillion workers as directors' bonuses halted

The developments came as the Government urged banks to deal “swiftly and sympathetically” with small firms caught up in the crisis.

Unions reported cases of workers being laid off across the country as a number of construction projects were stopped, with no certainty over when work would restart.

The Insolvency Service said 90% of Carillion’s private customers have indicated they want it to carry on providing services until new suppliers can be found and will provide funding to keep employees on.

The Service also revealed that payments, including those included in severance packages for former executives, had been halted after the firm went into liquidation on Monday.

A spokesman said: “Any bonus payment to directors, beyond the liquidation date, have been stopped and this includes the severance payments which were being paid to some senior executives who left the company.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn lashed out at the “wildly excessive” bonuses paid to directors.

The company’s interim CEO has revealed that Carillion had just £29 million in cash by the time it went bust, at a time when it was struggling under £900m of debt and a £587m pension deficit.

Mr Corbyn said the large salaries and bonuses paid to Carillion executives while its workers’ jobs were put at risk showed there was “one rule for the super-rich, another for everybody else”.

In fiery exchanges, Mr Corbyn called on the Prime Minister to end the “costly racket” of contracting out public services to private businesses.

“These corporations need to be shown the door. We need our public services provided by public employees with a public service ethos and a strong public oversight.”

Mrs May retorted: “We’re making sure in this case that public services continue to be provided, that workers in those public services are supported and taxpayers are protected.