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Carillion handed £500million to shareholders in the seven years before its collapse, while its pension black hole spiralled out of control.

Shocking analysis of its accounts show the debt-laden firm raised its payout to investors every year until it went bust.

We can also disclose how Transport Secretary Chris Grayling handed Carillion a £62million contract in November – a month after the Ministry of Defence decided to stop awarding it work.

One Labour MP said: “It beggars belief.”

The collapse of Carillion earlier this month has put the jobs and pensions of tens of thousands of workers in peril.

We can reveal House of Commons Library research, commissioned by Labour, showing the scale of cash paid to shareholders as a pension deficit grew. It is feared to be as high as £2.6billion.

In 2010 Carillion paid out £59.1million to investors. That sum rose yearly, up to £78.9million in 2016. Over the seven years, £500.1million was dished out.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

The pension shortfall, the difference between assets and liabilities, grew by more than £200million after 2015 to £587million when the firm collapsed.

Almost all FTSE 100 companies have a pension deficit, but Carillion’s is higher than all but five of the top firms’, despite the company being a fraction of the size.

And while reports suggest the black hole is far greater, even Carillion’s £587million figure is close to the total dividends paid over the seven years.

Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said: “It’s a national scandal that Carillion paid sim­­ilar sums in dividends that could have filled the gaping hole in its pension fund.”

She added it “speaks volumes for the corporate governance that has been allowed to occur over the last seven years of Tory economic failure”.

(Image: Getty)

Tim Roache, GMB union General Secretary, added: “The greed of company bosses and woeful failures of the Tory Government have put workers’ jobs on the line and their pensions under threat.

"It’s beyond disgraceful that Carillion bosses have been lining their own pockets while running the firm into the ground unchecked. The Tories have let them get away with it.”

MPs are probing the deficit amid suggestions the Pensions Regulator and the firm’s pension trustees failed to raise the alarm after the first profit warning, in July.

Directors’ bonuses and severance pay were stopped after furore over the liquidation of one of Government’s top contractors. Theresa May pledged new rules to stop bosses “lining their own pockets by putting workers’ pensions at risk”.

(Image: Reuters)

Meanwhile we can reveal Mr Grayling handed Carillion a contract to upgrade the London to Corby rail route a month after the MoD stopped awarding it contracts.

Carillion said at the time the contract was expected to generate £62million. In a written question, Labour asked the MoD whether Carillion was stress-tested.

It replied: “Every year the MoD undertakes a financial standing test of contractors. The last time this activity was undertaken was in October 2017.

“Results showed further due diligence would be required before the company would be invited to further competitions.”

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) (Image: Daily Mirror)

Labour’s Kevan Jones said: “If alarm bells were ringing at the MoD about Carillion, it beggars belief why the rest of Government were not asking similar questions. It raises further questions about Chris Grayling.’s judgment.”

Labour will today force a binding Commons vote on ministers handing over risk assessments of Carillion, and all of the Government’s strategic suppliers whose performance could affect public services.

Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jon Trickett said Carillion had “exposed Tories’ reckless over-reliance on outsourcing”.

He added: “Labour’s message to huge outsourcing firms that have endangered public services is clear: the party’s over.”