Fury at ministers after fresh Thomas Cook revelations emerge

Transport secretary Grant Shapps barred the directors of Thomas Cook from speaking to government ministers in the fortnight before the company’s collapse, it has emerged.

Former Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser has told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee’s hearing into the firm’s demise that he had met the transport secretary on the evening of Monday 9 September.

Shapps reportedly informed Thomas Cook that its point of contact with the UK government must be with senior officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) and that it was not to contact any government ministers directly.

During which time Thomas Cook held detailed negotiations with government ministers from Germany, Spain, Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria, all of whom expressed deep concerns about the impact of the firm’s collapse on their respective tourism and transport industries.

Thomas Cook remained hopeful of receiving a “backstop facility” of up to £200 million to ensure it could continue to operate during the winter of 2021, but the DfT told the stricken firm on Sunday 22 September the money would not be provided “as it would set a precedent.”

Thousands of jobs were lost when the company was liquidated the following day.

The news has prompted a furious reaction from the Unite union, which is the UK and Ireland’s largest union representing airline workers.

Oliver Richardson, national officer for civil aviation at Unite, said: “Grant Shapps has a lot of questions to answer about his role in Thomas Cook’s collapse. The way in which the government washed its hands of Thomas Cook is extraordinary and shocking.

“The 3,000 Unite members, the majority of whom worked for the profit making airline, will be angry that they were sacked without warning and without pay, yet no government minister was even prepared to sit down with the company to discuss potential assistance.

“While other governments throughout Europe were prepared to support parts of the Thomas Cook business and to seek to alleviate the damage faced by their tourism and transport industries, our government had installed barriers to prevent direct meetings.

“There is no evidence that the DfT was ever fully across the detail of what Thomas Cook needed to stay afloat or even to assist in separating the profitable parts of the business, to allow for their survival. This appears to be a governmental failure on a grand scale.”

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