PRIME Minister Gordon Brown is to personally intervene in the campaign to save the Teesside Corus plant and the jobs of its 3,000 workers, The Northern Echo can reveal.

And Mr Brown also 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 (TCP) plant, in Redcar, east Cleveland.

As hostilities intensified between Corus and the international steel consortium which yesterday tore up a ten-year agreement to buy 80 per cent of TCP’s output – with the consortium accusing Corus of “pointing a legal revolver” – Mr Brown also promised to do all he could to bring the two parties back to the table.

Mr Brown 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.

Bob Stainthorpe, Unite union convener at TCP, said: “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 (Corus and the consortium) together to try and ensure the future for Teesside.”

The Prime Minister’s intervention came as the dispute between Corus and the consortium of international steel buyers – led by Italian-based Marcegaglia – intensified, with the consortium hitting out at Corus’s pursuit of legal action to try to stop them pulling out of the agreement.

Last night, a spokesman for the consortium said: “Corus would like the consortium to talk while still pointing a legal revolver across the table. If you’re the one holding the revolver it’s easy to say the revolver’s not a problem.

“The offtakers (the consortium) opened the door to discussions, but of course they are not obliged to talk if they feel that Corus is in reality intent only on settling this via the courts at some distant date in the future.

“This is not in any way a question of a tactical negotiating position. This comes down to whether Corus is looking for a legal or for a commercial solution at TCP.

“The consortium would prefer a commercial route and no doubt the TCP workforce would agree with that.”

Jon Bolton, TCP managing director, said: “They terminated the agreement without warning when the market turned against them and we lost 80 per cent 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.”