Mr Gordon Brown Prime Minister of Great Britain spoke of his anger at the decision of steel giant Corus to mothball its Redcar plant with the loss of 1,700 jobs.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, he said that the government was doing all it could to find a buyer for the site.

Labour MP Ms Dari Taylor claimed the firm's Indian parent company TATA was not prepared to talk to ministers about selling the plant.

Ms Taylor said that "The whole of Teesside are waiting for news about Corus, a company whose order book was 80% full in December, is now mothballed and 1,700 are made unemployed."

She asked what was being done to help and whether it is the case that TATA is unprepared to sell this company and speak to British ministers.

Mr Brown said that "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."

(Sourced from www.thenorthernecho.co.uk)