Corbyn demands end to privatisation rip-offs as Grayling faces sack

that was clearly failing, it had issued three profit warnings.

“But the Government, and in particular Grayling’s Department of Transport, decided to put huge amounts of work their way.”

The Government has had to use taxpayers’ cash to maintain the public services run by Carillion.

Whitehall was last night preparing to take contracts in-house or ask the firm’s partners if they could take them on. Ministers stepped in to pay staff and small businesses working on its public projects. The firm had 450 contracts and employed 20,000 people. The Mirror can reveal the Tories failed to replace a Whitehall official

overseeing the FIASCO Chris Grayling finances of Carillion. Critics said the “catastrophic” decision to leave the crucial post empty between August and November last year had devastating consequences.

Unite’s national officer Jim Kennedy said: “There has to be an inquiry into how a firm that loaded itself with debt, undercut competitors with unsustainable bids, hoovered up vats of public money, and repeatedly alerted the Government to its own financial shortcomings got its hands on so much taxpayers’ cash.”

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs committee is to investigate No 10 sourcing. JEREMY Corbyn last night demanded the end of state handouts to private firms – as calls to sack Chris Grayling over the Carillion fiasco grew.

The Labour leader savaged the huge wages, payoffs and bonuses handed to executives who preside over failure. He said: “In the wake of the collapse of Carillion, it is time to put an end to the rip-off privatisation policies that have done serious damage to our public services and fleeced the public of billions. This is a watershed moment. Across the public sector, the outsource-first dogma has wreaked havoc.

“Often it is the same companies that have gone from service to service, creaming off profits and failing to deliver quality people deserve.”

It came as Theresa May faced calls to axe Transport Secretary Grayling, who handed a £1.4billion project to Carillion for HS2 last July, a week after it issued the first of three profit warnings.

And she was urged to launch a public inquiry as it emerged the firm won eight public sector contacts worth nearly £2billion while its shares tumbled. Labour peer Lord Adonis said Mr Grayling had made a “huge mistake”.

He added: “You had a company