CITY LINK’S Jon Moulton was skewered by angry MPs yesterday over his plans to take a whopping £20 million out of the failed company — while workers’ redundancies are paid by the state.

Pushed to justify “bogus self-employment” at the firm, Mr Moulton squirmed in front of a joint hearing of the business and Scottish select committees, but eventually said he was “sorry” for the saga that saw thousands of workers made redundant on Christmas Day last year.

Workers are set to receive only basic statutory pay-offs from the public purse and self-employed contractors working for the parcels firm will receive nothing at all.

Committee chairman Ian Davidson asked if Mr Moulton’s firm Better Capital, which bought a large stake in City Link in 2013 in the professed hope of turning it around, had forced workers to become self-employed contractors.

Playing the Pontius Pilate card, Mr Moulton replied: “I have never been a member of the board of City Link.”

And in a Ratneresque move, asked by Labour MP Pamela Nash about small contractor companies left with hefty staffing costs following the collapse, Mr Moulton said they “should have found a better customer” than his own City Link.

Mr Moulton denied he had U-turned on a commitment from Better Capital in September to provide funding for another 12 months.

In a letter to auditors, the firm said its “current intention” was to provide another year’s funding. Mr Moulton said this was not a “firm commitment.”

“There’s a considerable difference between an intention and an undertaking,” he said.

But Mr Davidson accused him of “dancing on the head of a pin.”

MPs pressed Mr Moulton on the case of a contractor whose regular payment was deferred on December 19 — six days before administrators moved in.

He suggested there was a reasonable explanation for the deferral — but admitted it was in the interests of Better Capital as a secure creditor to hold onto the cash.

Mr Moulton, who readily admitted he benefited from the lower taxes of Guernsey, where he and his firm are based, insisted his practice was above board.

But Tory MP Brian Binley accused Mr Moulton of “trading illegally,” adding: “You are too cool by half, you worry me, sir.”