Families who lost millions of pounds when a Christmas savings club collapsed were offered the prospect of some compensation today when a relief fund was set up to help them.

The independent Farepak Response Fund was set up by the Family Fund, a charity which helps families with disabled children, in response to what one minister described as a "national emergency".

More than 150,000 people lost a total of between £27 million and £40 million when Swindon-based Farepak went into administration last month. The scheme enabled families, many of whom are on low incomes, to buy vouchers and hampers to spread the cost of Christmas over a 12-month period.

During a packed debate in Westminster, Ian McCartney, the trade minister, told MPs that the supermarket giant Tesco had pledged £250,000 to the Government-backed fund and urged MPs to donate a day's pay - about £165 - as a goodwill gesture.

In a separate development, Sainsbury’s said it had agreed with Farepak’s administrators that customers who were saving for the supermarket chain’s vouchers in the scheme should be able to receive 25 per cent of the value of their total savings.

MPs rounded on the firm and Sir Clive Thompson, chairman of its parent company European Home Retail (EHR), as well as Farepak's bankers, Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS).

Anne Snelgrove, the Labour MP for South Swindon, described Sir Clive as a "modern-day Scrooge" and Linlithgow and East Falkirk Labour MP Michael Connarty called on MPs to boycott a champagne reception to be held for Scottish politicians by HBOS. MPs have also called for a protest outside HBOS's headquarters in Edinburgh.

Jim Devine, the Labour MP for Livingston, said that Farepak customers had been the victims of "legalised money laundering" and called for the Government’s Serious Fraud Office to investigate the collapse.

He said: "Let’s be very clear what this is about - this is legalised money laundering from the poor to the rich. Sir Clive Thompson is without doubt the 21st century equivalent of the Sheriff of Nottingham."

He called on Mr McCartney to "play the role of Robin Hood".

"This is an absolute scandal. The people involved in this are the organised poor. I say that not in a patronising manner, but these are people who didn’t use loan sharks, who didn’t use bank overdrafts, did not use credit cards. These are people who saved," said Mr Devine.

He called for Sir Clive to have his knighthood withdrawn.

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