Labour-controlled Leeds council picked crisis-hit Carillion for a £14m road-building contract just SEVEN DAYS ago
City Hall bosses picked the company to build a new ring road a week before it collapsed and went into liquidation
A LABOUR-dominated City council picked Carillion for a contract just seven days ago, the Sun can reveal.
As the party’s national frontbenchers panned the Government for awarding deals to the company last year, it emerged Leeds City Council selected the company to build a new ringroad last week.
Carillion won a £14million “advanced works” deal for the first stage of the East Leeds Orbital Road to improve the existing highway.
Works were due to begin next month, but the council said a "a final contract had not been signed off".
It was also given the opportunity to deliver the final two stages of the scheme – worth an estimated £100million.
Details of the award came as Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey demanded a “full and transparent investigation” into how the Government could pick Carillion for contracts despite two profit warnings last year.
She said there were “extreme concerns” about the Government’s handling of the situation and said Whitehall should take Carillion contracts back in-house.
Separately it emerged that Baroness Sally Morgan, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, was Carillion’s senior non-exec director.
The Unison union urged the Government to move quickly to bring Carillion’s contracts “back in-house” – to “safeguard our services and protect the many staff in schools, hospitals, local authorities and libraries”.
Unison chief Dave Prentis added: “It’s disgraceful that Carillion was lining the pockets of its shareholders, even though the company’s future was increasingly uncertain.”