SECURITY firm bosses said yesterday they would claim tens of millions of pounds in management fees despite being 100% responsible for a
"humiliating shambles".

Nick Buckles, chief executive of the G4S, the world’s second largest private sector employer, admitted he was sorry and “deeply disappointed” after the firm failed to deliver on its £284m Olympics security contract.

But he repeatedly insisted the firm still intended to claim its £57m management fee for work over the last two years, even though it cannot provide the guards needed for the Games.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said this was “astonishing” and called on G4S to waive the fee and any others associated with the contract.

Mr Buckles is under pressure to quit his £830,000-a-year job over the fiasco, which has resulted in the emergency deployment of soldiers, marines, airmen and police officers and seen £400m wiped off the market value of G4S.

He admitted he could not deny that the debacle was a “humiliating shambles for the company” and the firm’s reputation was now in tatters.

Houghton and Sunderland South MP Bridget Phillipson told Mr Buckles she was left with the feeling that he was “making it up as you go along”.

Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West & Abingdon) said Mr Buckles’s performance before the MPs “would lead quite a lot of people to despair”.

Michael Ellis (Northampton North) added that the public was “sick of huge corporations like yours thinking they can get away with everything”.