The Northern Echo reported that British Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown is to personally intervene in the campaign to save the Teesside Corus plant and the jobs of its 3,000 workers.

Mr Brown said that he is to hold talks with TATA Steel, owner of Corus, in the next couple of days to try to help broker a way forward for the future of its Teesside Cast Products plant in Redcar.

Mr Brown also promised to do all he could to bring the two parties back to the table. He made the pledges to a group of workers from TCP who travelled to Blackpool for the GMB Annual Conference, where an emergency motion was passed to support efforts to keep the Redcar steelworks open, protecting the positions of its 3,000 employees.
The five representatives managed to secure an impromptu meeting with Mr Brown before his keynote speech, during which he pledged to make every possible effort to ensure the long term future of the plant and of steelmaking on Teesside.

Mr Bob Stainthorpe Unite union convener at TCP said that "He was very supportive and very knowledgeable about what is happening and what needs to be done. We were very impressed and reassured about how well aware he is of the situation. Mr Brown told us that he personally will be speaking to TATA, and that he will do everything he can to bring the two parties together to try and ensure the future for Teesside."

Mr Jon Bolton MD of TCP said that "They terminated the agreement without warning when the market turned against them and we lost 80% of our order book overnight. We have to focus on actions rather than words and the fact is that it's Corus that has placed orders to get us to the end of July."

(Sourced from www.thenorthernecho.co.uk)