THE former boss of Thomas Cook has been urged by MPs to return a £500,000 bonus.
Debt-hit Thomas Cook folded last month leaving 150,000 Brits stranded and in need of repatriation.
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Former chief executive Peter Fankhauser told MPs he was “deeply sorry” that bosses could not save the famous travel giant.
Labour MP Rachel Reeves told a cross-party committee that his apology “rings rather hollow” unless he was willing to “put something back”.
She said his more than £500,000 cash bonus from 2017 could be “put to better purpose” such as redundancy payments for staff or compensation for taxpayers.
She urged Mr Fankhauser to “do your company proud” and “go away and reflect on the huge salaries you’ve earned”.
The former chief told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee he would “consider what is right”.
Mr Fankhauser, 59, who is Swiss, also said no government ministers called him in Thomas Cook’s final six days before September 23 yet their counterparts from Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece did so.
At a separate hearing, Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom told MPs that she learned Thomas Cook was in trouble a month before it collapsed.
She said bailing it out with the “£200million plus” it sought would have been “throwing good money after bad”.
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