THE Tory government has paid a whopping £33 million to Eurotunnel, after hapless Transport Secretary Chris Grayling broke strict rules to award a Brexit ferry deal to a ferry company with no ferries.

Just before Christmas, the Government handed contracts worth £108m to three ferry companies to run emergency cross-Channel services in the event of a no-deal Brexit. £14m of that went to Seaborne Freight, despite them not owning any vessels.

But the Department for Transport ignored key guidelines put in place to make sure any public money handed over is done so in a way that is rigorous and ensures best value for taxpayers.

The secretive manner in which they went about the process – using emergency legislation meant to be called on only in unforeseen circumstances – meant the contracts never went to tender, and firms like Eurotunnel were unable to bid.

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry, who first told the Government back in January that they may have been in breach of public contracts regulations, led calls for Grayling to resign.

When Eurotunnel took the Government to court, rather than fight, the ministers settled.

The out-of-court agreement has been combined with a new deal with the firm, who will now provide freight capacity for transit of medical supplies in the absence of a Brexit deal.

In a statement, the Government said: “As part of the agreement, Eurotunnel has also withdrawn its legal claim against the Government, protecting the vital freight capacity that the Government has purchased from DFDS and Brittany Ferries.”

Eurotunnel said the settlement would “ensure that the Channel tunnel remains the preferred route for vital goods to travel between the EU and the UK”.

It added that under its deal with the Government, “the development of infrastructure, security and border measures... will guarantee the flow of vehicles carrying urgent and vital goods and... will keep supply chains essential to both industry and consumers moving”.

Cherry said the whole episode had been “shambolic” describing it as “a debacle that completely defies satire”.

“The £33m being forced in compensation today comes on top of £800,000 the UK Government wasted in consultancy fees to set up the Seaborne Freight contract in the first place,” she said.

Cherry added: “For months now I’ve queried the legal basis of this contract and UK Government ministers have embarrassed themselves dodging my questions.

“This shambles has become the ultimate metaphor for Brexit – a complete farce, a government deluding itself and the public and, ultimately, an ill-fated disaster.”

Andy McDonald, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, was scathing about Grayling’s track record: “His conduct as a minister is one of serial failure and routine incompetence. In any other sphere of life he would have been sacked long ago. I say yet again: this trail of destruction has gone on long enough. It’s time for Chris Grayling to go.”

It wasn’t a good day for Grayling.

Hours before news of the Eurotunnel agreement emerged, the National Audit Office published a scathing report into his 2013 decision as Justice Minister to part-privatise probation services.

The failings of that new system, that created 21 community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) in England and Wales would be “extremely costly” for the taxpayer, the watchdog said.

It was supposed to cut reoffending rates. And while there has been a 2.5% reduction in the proportion of offenders proven to have committed another crime between 2011 and March 2017, the number of offences per reoffender has increased by 22%.

Whle the number of offenders recalled to custody who had received sentences of less than 12 months increased from 3% to 36%.

The NAO said the MoJ had “set itself up to fail”.

The CRCs will all have their contracts terminated in 2020, two years early, at a cost of at least £171m to the taxpayer.