NORTH-EAST MPs are to press the Government for financial help for stricken shipyard workers after it was revealed some staff have been left penniless.

The discovery came at a meeting yesterday at Redcar and Cleveland Town Hall on Teesside, to launch the Save Our Shipyards campaign.

The campaign aims to urge receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers to sell Cammell Laird as a going concern.

The firm's Teesside yard was mothballed last week with the loss of 110 jobs. The company also employs hundreds of workers at Tyneside.

The meeting was chaired by would-be Redcar MP Vera Baird, and attended by Teesside MPs Mo Mowlam, Ashok Kumar and Stuart Bell, together with about 100 shipyard workers.

The politicians said they were shocked to learn that receivers had left workers, who are paid weekly, without any money to support their families.

Worker Stuart Boddy said staff could not access redundancy money for another eight to 12 weeks.

He said: "Eighty per cent of the workforce live week to week and they don't have a penny. If there is any way the MPs can put pressure on to get the yard open, that's what the lads want."

Derrek Turk, managing director of the Teesside yard, said the problem lay with the receivers providing the right information to the Employment Service.

Ms Baird said she was shocked by Mr Boddy comments and said she would ask Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers if immediate financial help could be given.

A spokesman for PricewaterhouseCoopers said the standard redundancy procedure had been implemented.

Union officials will be meeting Defence Minister Geoff Hoon on Monday to discuss the stricken company's bid for Ministry of Defence contracts.