UK PM Johnson questions if Thomas Cook bosses were ‘properly incentivised’

Today Thomas Cook’s chief executive Peter Fankhauser apologised for the 180-year-old travel company’s collapse. But in the wake of the news, which has resulted in the world’s largest peacetime repatriation, UK prime minister Boris Johnson has questioned whether company execs are properly incentivised to avoid bankruptcy. A little over a decade on from the company’s previous near-miss with closure, investors decided its time had finally run out. Mr Johnson said Mr Fankhauser and co had come to the exchequer in search of a £150m bailout – reportedly refused to avoid the “moral hazard” caused by bailing out private firms. Reuters reports Mr Johnson as having told reporters gathered aboard his UN General Assembly-bound aircraft “one is driven to reflect on whether the directors of these companies are properly incentivised to sort such matters out”.