Ben Houchen accused of 'wasting public money' on libel legal advice

In April, Mr McDonald had alleged “industrial scale corruption” at Lord Houchen’s flagship regeneration programme at the former-Redcar steelworks site. He was describing a story that had been published in the previous day’s issue of Private Eye magazine.

He made his comments in the House of Commons as he spoke about the controversial deal that saw private stakeholders acquire 90 percent of Teesworks Ltd - a public-private venture that had previously been half-owned by the public sector - apparently for free.

Lord Houchen subsequently called Mr McDonald “a liar and a coward” in media appearances as he challenged the MP to repeat his statements outside of Parliament, where he is not protected from libel litigation.

A government investigation into the governance of TVCA and its subsidiary South Tees Development Corporation was ordered by Michael Gove in June to ensure there was no corruption and that the taxpayer was getting value for money. It’s expected to report its’ findings in the Autumn.

TVCA confirmed to The Times a £7,000 payment to Carter Ruck seen on the authority’s publicly-available Expenditure Report was because “the organisation sought advice and options on taking legal action against Andy McDonald MP and Private Eye”.

Both Private Eye and Mr McDonald are protected from libelling TVCA, as local authorities are unable to sue under libel laws. McDonald also enjoys the additional legal protection of Parliamentary privilege.

Private Eye editor, Ian Hislop, said it was an “interesting use of public money earmarked for the regeneration of Teesside. Good to see Lord Houchen supporting one of the most deprived sectors in Britain — London libel lawyers!”

Meanwhile Mr McDonald said: “TVCA don’t have, and never had, a cause of action against me. They didn’t need to waste public money getting lawyers to provide confirmation of what was glaringly obvious.”