Carillion: Government should heed TUC call for national task force and not just because it's a good idea

Ministers should recognise that they need help. Some of the more cynical among them might quite like the idea of sharing the responsibility for the clean up

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady wants a national task force to handle the Carillion collapse (AFP)

The TUC says a ‘national task force’ is needed to cope with the aftermath of the demise of Carillion.

As the increasingly radioactive fallout continues to build the suggestion made by its general secretary Frances O'Grady, acting in the interest of the thousands of affected workers, looks like a sensible one.

The Bank of England says the financial system can at least handle the situation, which is a relief.

But there are an awful lot of people and businesses that aren’t so lucky.

Some of the dominos are already falling, amid reports of instances of workers being sent home as businesses in Carillion's eco-system attempt to come to grips with the situation.

Still more will start to fall in as little as two days. That’s when, according to Cabinet Office minister David ‘it wasn’t my fault’ Liddington, support for firms on purely private sector deals will come to an end.

Up to 30,000 small ones are said to be owed money by the collapsed contractor, which had acquired a reputation for being less than prompt in matters regarding payment.

Those it engaged as sub contractors on public sector contracts need to be kept afloat because ministers know they need to keep services provided by Carillion going.

The failure of those businesses would exacerbate an already bad situation. Excuses aren’t going to be listened to if that hits those services, and why should they? Ministers carried on throwing work Carillion’s way even when it became clear that the firm was in trouble. The figure of £1.3bn is regularly going to be thrown at Theresa May’s government in the coming weeks. That's the value of post-profit warning contracts it won.

So it is in the interest of Government that sub contractors engaged in public sector work get paid.

Those engaged with private sector contracts aren't so lucky. They'll just have to join a long queue of creditors fighting over what looks like a very small pot. They may well, at some point, care to ask why the party of small business didn't listen when the Federation of Small Businesses called for the Prompt Payment Code to pay made mandatory back in 2016.

Heeding the TUC's call would at least make it look like minsters are listening to outside voices now, and are willing to work with whomever it takes to put the mess right.

They need to co-ordinate the work of multiple agencies, and bluntly, they need help.

Cynics among their number - and there are an awful lot of those sitting around the cabinet table - may also scent an opportunity to ensure that the responsibility for cleaning up the mess is shared.

They can’t escape taking a kicking for those contracts, and they should also take one for the policy of continually handing taxpayers' money to companies like this to make a mess with.

But there are still just so many issues that could emerge to bite them as the situation develops.

Jobs, the chronically underfunded pension scheme, the questions surrounding who knew what, and when, the failure of still more businesses that relied on Carillion’s coin.

Take up the TUC's suggestion would show that a government that has acquired a reputation for both callousness and incompetence is capable of doing the right thing, and of playing nicely with others when it needs to.