Thomas Cook staff have told their moving stories as they descended on the Tory conference to demand financial support from the Government.

Dozens of former employees – some wearing their old uniforms – protested outside the venue in Manchester urging ministers to "pay us now" after they did not receive their wages on Monday.

Around 9,000 staff in the UK were left jobless last week when the business failed to secure a last-ditch rescue deal.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham led calls outside the Tory conference venue in the city for the Government to give former staff their unpaid wages and redundancy packages.

He said: "Thousands of people in Greater Manchester woke up last week to the news that they didn't have a job.

"And today they were expecting a pay cheque and of course it has not arrived."

Asked what the Government needed to do to help the workers, he said: "Get payments made without any delay – so that's both unpaid wages and redundancy, which is obviously a statutory service.

"I think they need to help us with regard to retraining if people want to retrain, but I think they also need to provide better answers – why did the German authorities save their airline, and why was the profitable UK airline allowed just to go to the wall?"

Former employees chanted "Pay us now" and held placards which read "Bankers bailed out, Thomas Cook kicked out" as they gathered outside the Manchester Convention Centre on Monday morning.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey and Labour's Lucy Powell, who represents Manchester Central, addressed the crowds along with Mr Burnham.

Ms Long Bailey said: "Our central message is that they've got huge questions to answer.

"Over the weekend it surfaced that the Beis (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) department didn't meet with Thomas Cook hardly at all over the last 12 months and we wonder why that was allowed to happen when it was quite clear that there were alarm bells ringing about Thomas Cook for quite some time.

"It's staggering how the German government seemed to be on top of the situation and intervened, yet ours just sat back and sat on its hands essentially. And there must be reasons for that.

"We want to know, is it incompetence or was there a real strategic reason as to why they didn't want to provide the support?"

We talked to the families who have lost their jobs after decades with Thomas Cook who were at today's protests. This is what they had to say.

'Our twins just started school – it's theft'

Louise Griffiths and her husband Colin were both ditched as Thomas Cook cabin crew managers just days after their four-year-old twins Peyton and Rocco started school.

Colin blasted “terrible decisions over the years” and criticised the government for not doing more to rescue the travel giant.

“I should have been paid today,” said Colin, who with his wife had 37 years' combined service. “It’s theft. There’s no inquiry or inquest. No one’s looking for that person.

“All I’m asking for is for people to look into things and find out why that was allowed to happen.”

Slamming the government, he added: “I don’t think they realise the impact. It’s not just the people in the shops, it’s not just the people on the airline.

“It’s having an effect now on baggage handlers, cleaners, caterers – all of these people are now finding themselves going to be unemployed.”

Louise said both she and Colin, from Stoke-on-Trent, “loved our jobs” adding: “I don’t think even the big bosses tried to save us. They were trying to save themselves.”

Louise worked for Thomas Cook for 15 years while Colin spent 22 years with the firm.

But they found out they would lose their jobs through WhatsApp and Facebook .

Colin: “I was about to go on a flight that morning, the 23rd, so my alarm was about to go off at 2am to do my usual 12 hour shift – which I’m not complaining about, I’d go anything to go back to that right now.

“I was woken by my wife crying to say it was over because obviously the media came out with everything.

“I put my uniform on because I rang the operations staff and they said to still come in.

“No one really knew what was going on. It was all a very surreal, strange moment.”

Louise had only just been approved as “fit to fly” after being grounded for months due to a hernia operation.

Colin said: “The savings we had have gone on that. We’ve used everything up.”

'I've got nothing left – and Tories don't even read the brief'

Martin Browne, 44, lost his cabin crew manager job after 21 years with Thomas Cook along with his wife Hayley, 41, who’d been with the firm for 19 years.

Martin condemned “poor management, stupid ludicrous management decisions” and chief executives who took millions in pay and bonuses.

Slamming the government he said: “I accept they couldn’t have bailed out the entire company.

“But what you do expect is the government ministers to read the brief.

“Because we were profitable. The airline made £100million last year. We were on target to make another £100million this year.

“We’ve been the scapegoats.”

He added: “It needs to stop. This cannot happen again. Companies shouldn’t just go bust like that, with 21,000 people ending up on benefits and the cost of the repatriation.”

The couple from Manchester have two children, girls Macie, 13, and Lyla, 9.

Martin added: “We both lost our job on the same day.

“We found out by Twitter and Facebook and things like that. We never got any notification.

“The first thing I saw was a WhatsApp photograph of an aircraft that had been impounded.”

Martin said Thomas Cook workers were split into two groups during a meeting last Monday with the airline’s chief executive “and his fake tears” in a hangar at Manchester Airport.

“It was these people stay, everybody else go home, take a leaflet. That was it,” he said.

Martin had nine months off work after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 2017.

“I spent my savings, I’ve got nothing left, run up credit card bills,” he said.

“I’ve been in employment since I was 12 years old. I started as a butcher, then a CCTV engineer then I worked for the Co-Op.

“Now at 44 I don’t think that’s going to happen. I will get a job but what that looks like, I haven’t got a clue.”

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