ANDREA LEADSOM must quit or be fired as business secretary, a trade union demanded yesterday after the former boss of Thomas Cook said no ministers had contacted him before the company’s collapse.

Peter Fankhauser, who was the travel firm’s chief executive when it went bust last month, told the business select committee that in the six days before the liquidation he had not heard from a single Tory minister.

Mr Fankhauser added that he had been contacted by ministers from Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.

Travel industry union TSSA, which represents the redundant Thomas Cook workers, described the revelation as “utterly damning” and said that Ms Leadsom’s position was “totally untenable.”

General secretary Manuel Cortes said: “We can’t have a business secretary that doesn’t bat for Britain, doesn’t lift a finger when 9,000 jobs are on the line.

“The public will be furious at this lack of action when the business could have been saved … she must walk or be fired.”

He questioned why the government was prepared to “write off an iconic British brand for ideological reasons,” when governments of other countries were “more than willing to help.”

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey called for a full public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Thomas Cook collapse and for ministers to examine the “excessive bonus culture.”

MPs on the committee also asked Mr Fankhauser whether he would consider paying back the bonus of more than £500,000 he received in 2017.

He replied that he would “consider what is right, but I’m not going to decide that today,” adding that the company was “deeply sorry” over the job losses.

Labour MP Rachel Reeves, who chairs the committee, told him that his apology “rings rather hollow” unless he was willing to “put something back.”

She suggested that his bonus could help cover the cost of redundancy payouts or compensation for the taxpayer.