9:43am Thursday 31st December 2009
By Owen McAteer
A DELEGATION of North-East MPs yesterday met Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his Scottish constituency to discuss their proposals for saving a steel plant earmarked for closure.
Mr Brown broke off from his Christmas holiday to meet Redcar MP Vera Baird, Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, and Stockton South MP Dari Taylor.
The trio yesterday travelled to Mr Brown’s constituency in Fife to put forward proposals that they hope could save the Corus Teesside Cast Products (TCP) plant, near Redcar.
It is believed they will discuss with Mr Brown the possibility of him meeting the heads of Corus and its Indian parent company Tata.
Last week, they were joined by fellow Teesside MPs Sir Stuart Bell, from Middlesbrough, Frank Cook, of Stockton North, and Hartlepool’s Iain Wright, in urging the Prime Minister to sit down with Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, and Corus chief executive Kirby Adams.
Yesterday’s delegation was joined by Nick Brown, Minister for the North-East, who had met them on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, which could lead to 1,700 job losses next month.
Before the meeting Mrs Baird said: “We are leaving no stone unturned in our work as MPs to try to save the Corus plant, and will be putting a number of issues to the Prime Minister.”
Dr Kumar said: “I have raised a number of issues in Parliament recently, and we are following them up further.
“We want to keep the plant open if we can and are exploring every possibility to that end, no matter how remote.”
Mrs Taylor added: “We are delighted the Prime Minister is finding time over the Christmas period for a meeting and will take the opportunity to ensure the views of Teesside are raised directly with him.”
Corus announced earlier this month that the Redcar plant was to be mothballed at the end of next month, putting 1,700 people out of work immediately.
An economic model used by business development group Tees Valley Unlimited estimated that the knock on effects would see 4,000 people across the Tees Valley lose their jobs as a result of the Corus closure.
An alternative model used by regional development agency One North East predicts 1,100 supply chain jobs and 400 service sector jobs will go with the 1,700 – a total of 3,200 with an annual loss of £150m to the Tees Valley economy.
The plant first came under threat in May when an international consortium comprising of Marcegaglia, Dongkuk, Duferco and Ternium Procurement pulled out of a contract, signed in 2004, to buy 78 per cent of Teesside’s output for ten years.
A 90-day consultation period with workers started that month and was due to finish in August. However that was extended after the plant won enough new orders to take it through to the New Year.
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