Our front page exclusive this morning, exposing the financial farce behind the Sea Dragon oil rig project, is attracting a lot of national interest.

Deputy Business Editor Deborah Johnson has revealed how the project will cost £110m more to build in Singapore than here in the North-East, where the deal would have created hundreds of local jobs.

And what makes the situation even harder to understand is that Lloyds TSB, which is almost half owned by the British taxpayer, is to help fund the switch to Singapore.

How can it make sense for a bank, bailed out by us, to help finance a deal that takes jobs away from our shores?

Deborah has received a number of telephone calls this morning from national journalists following up her story.

It looks like this one will run and run.