GORDON BROWN spoke of his anger at the decision of steel firm Corus to mothball its Teesside plant with the loss of 1,700 jobs.

The Prime Minister said yesterday the Government was doing all it could to find a buyer for the Redcar site.

And he revealed that he had spoken to Tata’s boss Ratan Tata and the chief executive of Corus.

Labour MP Dari Taylor said the firm’s Indian parent company, Tata, was not prepared to talk to ministers about selling the plant.

The Stockton South MP told the House of Commons: “The whole of Teesside is waiting for news about Corus – a company whose order book was 80 per cent full in December is now mothballed and 1,700 are made unemployed.”

She asked what was being done to help and whether Tata was really unprepared to sell the company or speak to ministers.

Mr Brown replied: “I share your anger about what has happened on Teesside. The loss of 1,700 jobs in any area is something that is unacceptable.

“The loss of 1,700 jobs in an area which has depended on this industry for years and had a contract which would have been guaranteeing future work for many future years is more unacceptable and something that we have to look at very carefully.”

The Teesside Cast Products plant in Redcar had signed up a consortium of four companies to buy 80 per cent of its steel for a decade, with the remainder going straight to Corus’ own plants.

But the consortium, Marcegaglia of Italy, South Korea’s Dongkuk, Switzerland’s Duferco and Alvory of Argentina, stunned Corus last year when it announced it was ending the contract.

Mr Brown said: “We are doing everything that we can to find a buyer for this plant.”

The North-East Select Committee, which held evidence sessions in Redcar and London, met on Tuesday night to finalise its report on the mothballing, to be published next Thursday.

It is certain to contain stinging attacks on both Corus and the Government, after chairwoman, Ms Taylor, accused ministers of letting the people of the region down.

However, the committee’s central proposal – a wage subsidy scheme to keep Corus workers in their jobs until the steel market bounces back – fizzled out after the company rejected it as impractical.