A MAYORAL candidate claims he is already in early negotiations to buy Durham Tees Valley Airport if he is elected.

Ben Houchen, who is standing as Conservative candidate to be the first Tees Valley “metro mayor” from May, said he has been involved in some early talks with representatives of the owner Peel Airports.

However, when pressed on how exactly he would finance any bid from his £15m-a-year mayoral budget, he said the plan was in its very early stages and he was unable to detail exactly how it would work.

The Northern Echo approached Peel Airports to ask if it had held talks with Mr Houchen, but the company was unable to confirm this.

Politicians from opposing parties yesterday heaped scorn on his idea, with Darlington’s Labour council leader and chairman of Tees Valley Transport Committee saying the idea “had all the hallmarks of something which has been written on the back of a fag packet”.

Labour mayoral candidate Sue Jeffrey said: “What concerns me is that there is no indication whatsoever of how he is going to deliver on his promise.

“These sort of ill-thought out declarations have the potential to affect the future viability of the airport.”

Chris Foote Wood, Liberal Democrat candidate for Tees Valley mayor, accused Mr Houchen of staging a “headline-grabbing stunt” and said: “That would be throwing good money after bad.

“Our airport needs investment, private as well as public. Civil servants and council officers are not the best people to run a commercial enterprise. It is all too easy for losses to be met from the public purse.

“As mayor I will set up a Mayoral Development Corporation which could invest in Durham Tees Valley airport, but only in conjunction with private investment to share the risk.”

However, last night Mr Houchen mooted a similar idea, which he said would be based at the airport.

He said the value in the airport currently was in the land around it, and the airport itself could be bought cheaply, with a development corporation to be established on the site.

He added: “It is in the very early stages but we have had a positive response from Peel. I have approached them.”

John Tait, mayoral candidate for the North East party, said: “It is a refreshing change to hear a Conservative politician proposing public ownership of an important infrastructure asset. I don’t think we have heard anything like that for at least 30 years from the Conservative Party.” But he said his own party had undertook a study two years previously which found that there was only so much that Durham Tees Valley would be able to grow and it would not be a viable investment now Newcastle had become the main airport hub in the North-East.

John Tennant, the UKIP candidate for Mayor, said a better use of money would be to implement the planned Tees Valley metro to enable more people to be able to get to the airport.

He criticised Mr Houchen for a further “publicity stunt” which he said came on the back of saying he would abolish Cleveland Police – which he said was something the mayor would not have the power to do.