HOPES of North-East shipworkers getting a share of a £320m cruise liner contract rose last night after the Government offered a huge loan guarantee.
Shipbuilder Cammell Laird was said to be studying what was understood to be a £200m loan guarantee by Trade Secretary and North Tyneside MP Stephen Byers to help win a contract to build two cruise liners.
Laird's is based on Merseyside, but has yards on Tyneside and Teesside which could get a share of the contract with US company Luxus, which would return cruise liner construction to the UK for the first time in more than 20 years.
A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry hailed the offer as "a major step forward by the Government to help get the project under way"
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