Workers come last

The former owner of Monarch could recoup a big chunk of its money – while taxpayers and workers are left out of pocket.

Greybull Capital, which bought struggling Monarch for £1 in 2014, pumped £85million of its own money into the business.

It is one of the first in line to recover funds when Monarch’s assets are sold.

Early-stage estimates put the value of the sell-off at £100m, including the disposal of cash and take-off and landing slots.

The Government was forced to lay on emergency flights to bring back 110,000 Monarch customers from abroad at a cost of £60m.

Greybull, run by French financier brothers Marc and Nathaniel Meyohas, will come before HM Revenue & Customs, workers, suppliers and hoteliers in getting back their money.

The Pension Protection, which took on responsibility for Monarch’s pension scheme in 2014, is also owed £7.5m. Frank Field, chair of the Commons Work and Pension Committee, said: “How can it be that once again mega-rich individuals could walk away from a collapsed company with a bumper profit while ordinary people pick up the bill?”

Greybull stressed it hadn’t taken out any loan repayments, dividends or interest since 2014.

A spokesman added: “Monarch would not have survived in 2014 and Greybull put their best efforts into saving it.

“Greybull is a senior creditor but they are working with the administrators to get the best possible outcome for everyone.”