Responding to reports that Carillion is to go into liquidation, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said:

“The government must now take responsibility for the big contracts run by Carillion, or re-tender them, to keep the supply chain going and protect thousands of jobs. Ministers must minimise the damage to the capacity of the construction industry.

“We also urgently need a parliamentary inquiry into some of the very questionable decisions made in the past few months, not least the award of public contracts to a company that was clearly in danger of collapse. The issue of the former chief executive still being paid his salary, plus perks and bonus, is also a reward for failure that has to be looked into.”