LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to accuse the Government of letting down Teesside by refusing to save Redcar steelworks.

“The Government could have quite easily intervened if it had wanted to," Mr Corbyn is due to tell the Labour party conference today, a day after SSI announced it was mothballing the Teesside blast furnace and axing 1,700 jobs.

MPs and unions have urged David Cameron to offer the troubled works, which has struggled to compete against cheap exports from China, the same kind of state support given to banks during the financial crash.

Ministers have rebuffed calls to nationalise steel or inject taxpayers' money into the industry, citing EU state aid rules which restrict the support governments can offer private companies.

In his maiden speech as Labour leader, Mr Corbyn will say: "What’s happened in Teesside and Redcar is an example of everything that is wrong with the economic policies of this government and this country.

"Major industry, an amazing skill base, an amazing record of producing steel which has made so much of this country - the Victoria Line to the bridges and all the other things in between.

"It’s been closed down.

"Basically it’s like losing a ship for a ha’porth of tar.

He will add: “The Government could have quite easily intervened if it had wanted to.

"Instead it’s not prepared to stand up to the dumping policies of other Governments, particularly the Chinese Government, on steel around the world.

“It’s not prepared to learn the lesson that the Italian Government could have quite easily have taught them - that you can intervene.

"You can intervene either temporarily or permanently - there’s lots of ways you can do it, if you are serious about defending the economic infrastructure of the manufacturing base of this country.

"They have failed to do so. Shame on them.”