sgtsixpack "I'm signed into google chrome,.............login it goes no further in firefox - just leads to an empty page:"
I'm assuming you mean you can sign into the account via Chrome but not when you use Firefox.
The link you posted is the address of the page asking you to enter your VM password. So Firefox is taking you to the right page but it could be that there is a corrupt cookie in your installation of Firefox that is stopping the page from displaying correctly.
Try signing into VM Firefox using a "Private window" - that will download fresh copies of any cookies that are needed. To do that click on the 3 horizontal bars in the top right hand corner of the Firefox screen and click on "New private window" in the drop down menu.
If you can access the account in a Firefox private window the long term solution is to delete the VM cookies from Firefox. That will allow you to access your VM account in Firefox without having to use a private window,
Try that and see how it goes.
Coenoby