NO southern port should be allowed to grow until £300m plans to expand Teesport have been properly considered, Government ministers will be told today.

Vera Baird, Labour MP for Redcar, will use a Commons debate to urge the Department for Transport (DfT) to publish its promised National Ports Strategy as quickly as possible.

The strategy - expected in the autumn - holds the key to Teesport's hopes of creating 7,000 jobs by building a deep-sea container terminal to bring in freight from the Far East and elsewhere.

But the DfT has raised the alarm by signalling that decisions on possible expansions at Felixstowe, Harwich and London could be reached first.

Yesterday, Ms Baird wrote to the newly-appointed ports minister, Stephen Ladyman, to urge him to think again.

She said: "I am sure you do not need reminding that the unemployment rates within Redcar and the Tees Valley are almost twice that of the national average.

"Teesport is preparing its harbour revision order for submission to your department later this year but the company, and I, remain deeply concerned that the current approach is counter-intuitive."

Pointing out the south-east economy was "overheated", Ms Baird added: "It seems sensible to take a step back from deciding upon any proposal to expand the UK's ports capacity in order to look at the bigger picture."

Ms Baird and other Teesside MPs hope to meet with Mr Ladyman soon after MPs return from their Whitsun break, on June 6.

Ms Baird has also tabled a series of parliamentary questions to obtain detailed information on the proportion of freight entering through southern ports that is then transported to the North-East.

PD Ports, Teesport's parent company, has argued its expansion would take millions of lorry miles off the roads - as well as help to close a £29bn economic output gap with the South.

Meanwhile, in a transport debate in the House of Lords yesterday, Lord Snape, a former Labour MP, argued the case for Teesport's expansion.

He said: "I know that the Government are considering their policy on ports and whether to grant applications for the development of at least three southern ports.

"It would seem an odd approach to transport, to say the least, to bring into southern ports huge quantities of containers, which are then largely transferred by road to the Midlands and the North of England.

"Ministers have promised to bring forward a national ports strategy either in this or the next Parliament but will make decisions about the future of the southern ports before doing so.

"Surely that is the wrong way round. Such a national ports policy should include those ports not in the South of England.

"Developments such as Teesside really should be looked at again if we are to avoid the added road congestion."