SSI: Anger as 240 steel workers given 'false hope'

MPs have strongly criticised the Insolvency Service after claiming 240 people who thought they were being kept on at a former steel works were sent home in the middle of their shifts.

Redcar Labour MP Anna Turley said it beggared belief that staff at the former SSI plant on Teesside had mistakenly been kept on.

The Official Receiver had said 650 people would be kept on to keep the coke ovens working. Irreparable damage would be done if they were allowed to go cold.

But Ms Turley and Labour colleague Tom Blenkinsop, MP for neighbouring Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said they understood that in reality 890 people were kept on.

They said 240 workers were sent home in the middle of their shift and told they would be made redundant.

It was announced on Wednesday that enough coal would be bought to keep the ovens going until at least the weekend while discussions continued about the ovens' future.