Therese Coffey says Teesside Freeport probe will not look into ‘conspiracy theories’ about crab deaths

The Government announced an independent panel will be set up to conduct a review of the Teesworks project and look into allegations of corruption and wrongdoing.

In Parliament today, Shadow Environment Secretary Jim McMahon asked whether the review would also look into claims that a mass die-off of crustaceans in the North East, which began in October 2021, could be linked to dredging done in the River Tees as part of the project.

But Ms Coffey said a panel of scientists, appointed by Defra’s Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Gideon Henderson, has already done a “thorough job of going through what has happened there”.

She added: “We will continue to use our scientists in order to make sure that we investigate as appropriate, but I'm afraid just peddling conspiracy theories is not something that's appropriate.”

In January, the panel said it was “unable to identify a clear and convincing single cause” of the deaths but the “most likely” explanation is an unknown disease or parasite killed the crustaceans, which have been washing ashore between Hartlepool and Whitby.

Fishermen and scientists from several universities claimed the deaths were linked to an industrial chemical called pyridine that was released by dredging, but the panel found that was “very unlikely”.

The panel said maintenance dredging was carried out in the River Tees in October 2021, when the first deaths occurred, but the amount of toxic chemicals released was “too small” to kill crabs.

It is “exceptionally unlikely” that capital dredging, done to create a larger shipping channel, is the cause as it was carried out 10 months before and then 11 months after the die off began, the panel added.

Teesworks aims to transform the former Redcar Steelworks site, on the bank of the river, into a hub for manufacturing businesses.

However, several Labour MPs have been urging the National Audit Office to investigate the project, which is being run by Tees Valley’s Tory Mayor Ben Houchen.

It comes amid concerns that hundreds of millions of pounds of public money is being spent on remediating the 4,500 acre site, which is contaminated with industrial waste, but when the land is leased to investors most of the profits are paid to two developers, Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney.

The developers have been handed a 90 per cent stake in Teesworks Limited – a company which has options to acquire valuable parcels of the land on the site.

They profit from lucrative lease agreements and also get half the money made from scrap metal sales – more than £93m so far.

But Mr Houchen said they are borrowing money for the expensive remediation work from the publicly-funded South Tees Development Corporation and they will pay it back with interest.

He said the development corporation also profits from lease deals, land sales and the sale of scrap metal.

This week, Mr Gove announced an independent review would be carried out, but said it would not be appropriate for the National Audit Office to investigate a project run by a local body, as it has a remit to scrutinise central Government spending.

The Tory Minister also said he has “not been advised of the existence of any evidence” of corruption or wrongdoing.