A RESCUE plan for Teesside steelworks will be put before the government today in a last ditch bid to save the troubled SSI plant and hundreds of jobs, The Northern Echo can reveal.

A North-East company has stepped forward with a bold proposal that would keep the fires burning at the Redcar site until a buyer can be found to restart iron and steelmaking when market conditions pick-up.

It comes amid rising fears that cash-strapped SSI will enter administration in the coming days, triggering 2,200 job losses on Teesside and leaving staff and suppliers owed millions of pounds.

This morning steel minister Anna Soubry will meet business leaders and Tees MPs Anna Turley and Tom Blenkinsop, who will put the offer on the table and urge the Government to give it their full backing.

“I fear the plant will keel over and die if we don't do something in the next few days," said Ms Turley, who has been in talks with the company behind the deal, which does not wish to be named, for a number of weeks.