DAVID Cameron has been urged to come to Teesside and help lead a rescue bid for the region’s beleaguered steel industry.

SSI worker Brian Dennis was given a standing ovation at the Labour Party conference yesterday for his speech made a few hours after he heard he was losing his job. He said Mr Cameron should visit Teesside and see for himself the devastating effect of 1,700 steel job cuts in an area already blighted by the highest unemployment levels in the country.

“He (David Cameron) needs to come to speak to me and my colleagues and our councillors and everybody down on that workforce. He needs to come and give us the answers,” said Mr Dennis.

Mr Cameron and George Osborne have both voiced their strong belief in a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ that will build a region of thriving businesses and world-beating industrial infrastructure capable of challenging London and the South East.

Following the announcement at 10.30am yesterday to mothball SSI at Redcar, Northern Powerhouse minister James Wharton, MP for Stockton South, was invited by The Northern Echo to make a statement or write a piece outlining his reaction. Despite his office welcoming the invitation Mr Wharton declined to provide the Echo with any comment.

The Unite union said: “The government’s much vaunted Northern Powerhouse risks being nothing more than empty rhetoric unless it steps in with assistance to save the SSI plant on Redcar.

“With so many livelihoods at stake and the UK steel industry at crisis point government ministers need to follow the lead of their counterparts in France, Italy and Germany by pursuing an active industrial strategy which supports the UK’s steel industry.

“Over the coming days Unite will be doing everything we can to support our members and the community and pressing government ministers to intervene and save our steel.”

Business Minister Anna Soubry, who has won cross party acclaim for the way she has tackled the steel crisis, said: “Despite everyone’s recent efforts to help SSI this is very sad news and a big blow for the workforce and their families. They are the priority and with SSI’s difficulties being no secret, why I had already asked Amanda Skelton, Chief Executive of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, to chair a local taskforce to help support workers and the local economy. I also have concerns about reports that local contractors have gone unpaid.

Government ministers rejected Labour's calls to renationalise steel.

“The steel industry across the UK is facing very challenging economic conditions. The price of steel has almost halved over the past year, with overproduction in the world market. While government cannot alter these conditions, I have called a steel summit to see what more can be done to help our steel industry.”