Winning deals until the end

Carillion bagged £1.9billion of new taxpayer-funded deals despite the Government preparing for its collapse.

The National Audit Office found the construction and outsourcing giant announced a number of public sector contracts after it revealed a black hole in its finances in July 2017.

Yet the Government didn’t raise its risk warning on Carillion to ‘red’ until September.

The company later persuaded the Cabinet Office against upping the threat to ‘high risk’ – which is the most severe level.

The stricken firm had 420 public sector contracts when it went to the wall in January.

According to the report, none of the bodies dishing out the contracts believed they had grounds for disqualifying Carillion’s contracts under procurement rules.

The NAO estimates Carillion’s collapse has left the taxpayer with a near £150million bill.

To date, more than 2,300 Carillion employees have lost their jobs, nearly 11,700 have found new work and 3,000 are still with the firm.

Tim Roache, GMB trade union general secretary, said: “This report suggests that ministers were working for the company, and not the other way around.”