Tees Valley mayor denies Labour MP's Teesworks corruption claims

Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said work at the Teesworks site, which would bring in thousands of jobs, was being "smeared"

A mayor has denied an MP's claims in Parliament there was "industrial-scale corruption" at a major industrial site.

Middlesbrough Labour MP Andy McDonald said questions needed to be answered over hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money invested at Teesworks.

Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said the claims were "untrue" and the work was being "smeared."

A Teesworks spokesperson said individuals involved in the project had "nothing to hide."

Speaking in the Commons on Thursday - and using parliamentary privilege which protects him from defamation - Mr McDonald, citing a Private Eye investigation, accused developers Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney of financially benefitting from the site, on the outskirts of Redcar.

Middlesbrough's Labour MP Andy McDonald has asked the government to investigate

Mr McDonald said: "A huge site acquired by the public body, South Tees Development Limited, for £12m in 2019, subsequently had hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer investment.

"Any future sale had to be on market terms.

"We now know that private developers exercised their option to purchase for a mere £1 an acre plus inflation, paying £96.79 in December 2022. I have the transfer Mr Speaker.

"The only economic growth being delivered is into the accounts of Ben Houchen's pals, Messrs Musgrave and Corney, for a bargain of £100 will benefit to the tune of £100m, all the while, the state remains on the hook for the ongoing environmental costs."

He then asked Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt, to "ensure" the Levelling Up Secretary comes to the despatch box and set out "what plans the government has for a full investigation into this industrial-scale corruption."

'Abusing his privilege'

Ms Mordaunt said she would write to the relevant secretary of state, before praising Mr Houchen's work in the region.

Speaking to BBC Look North, Mr Houchen said: "Andy [McDonald] is a coward and he has got a long history of poor behaviour and actually abusing his parliamentary privilege for a number of people over a number of different issues over recent years.

"I would absolutely require Andy to come out into the public, outside of Parliament, make those same statements - because he won't do that, because he knows if he does he will be sued for defamation, for libel and he will lose."

Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also called for the government to address concerns raised over the handling of the site.

Responding to the MP's claims, during a visit to Middlesbrough College, he said "serious questions" need to be answered and Mr McDonald was correct to raise the issue in Parliament.

About 20,000 employees will be working on the site, officials have said

But Conservative Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Simon Clarke said: "Remediating the vast Teesworks site so that it can become home to thousands of good new jobs in the clean energy sector is one of the most complex challenges under way in the whole of the UK, and requires hundreds of millions - transformative investment of the kind we never saw when Labour were in power.

"Ben Houchen has used his powers to leverage the huge support he has received from the government to unlock additional investment from the private sector so that this work can be delivered as successfully and as swiftly as possible."

In a statement from Teesworks, Mr Musgrave and Mr Corney said they had "nothing to hide" and accused Mr McDonald of "an abuse of power".

"It is obvious from his comments that Mr McDonald believes that criminal offences have been committed by all three men, as well as the professional officers of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), and the legal advisors involved in the contractual agreements in relation to the Teesworks land site," they said.

"If this is the case, then Mr McDonald should make a formal criminal complaint to the chief constable of Cleveland Police, and provide any evidence of a criminal nature, so that an investigation can occur without delay.

"Messrs Musgrave and Corney would be willing to assist any investigative process."