Steel tariffs suggest Houchen's invitation to Trump might just go unanswered
Plus - Post Office Horizon scandal victim Keith Bell accepts £600,000 payment
It’s your midweek Teesside Lead, the 31st edition overall since relaunching (don’t call it The Great Reset).
This edition is a round-up of a few bits and bobs from around the area, including a story I did for BBC Radio Tees about a sub-postmaster who received £600,000 in compensation from the government as a victim of the Horizon IT scandal.
As always, please consider supporting The Teesside Lead. It’s free to subscribe, and it’s free to share!
On this week’s news that US President Donald Trump has applied a 25% tariff on all imports of steel, it was hard not to shed a tear for Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, who was re-elected last year, partially in thanks to his promise to “bring steelmaking back to Teesside.”
Since his re-election, plans for British Steel to build an electric arc furnace on Teesside have been shelved in order to support jobs in jeopardy in Scunthorpe.
The mayor also wrote to Trump after his re-election to congratulate him, and to invite him to Teesside.
“It would be fantastic to connect with your team to explore avenues for a strong, positive relationship... built on a shared commitment to economic growth, resilience, and community strength,” he wrote.
As recently as last month, he appeared on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC show to re-state his admiration for the President and convicted criminal.
“America is our single biggest trading partner,” he told her.
Government data published shortly after this appearance shows 21.7% of all UK exports, worth £186.7bn, going to the USA in 2023. This is largely made up of services rather than goods.
However, if seen as a collective, the EU is the UK’s largest trading partner, responsible for 41.4% of exports (£356.3bn).
“If we think we can sit here and stick our fingers in our ears, ridicule him, and pretend we shouldn’t deal with the Americans or Trump,” he continued, “then those people are in the wrong job if they’re in government.
“We need to embrace it,” he said, before suggesting that the UK could potentially shape Donald Trump’s worldview.
Lord Houchen has yet to mention Trump since the announcement of tariffs on steel, though he finished his letter to him in November by stating: “Please know that you have many admirers here...”
Post Office Horizon scandal victim accepts £600,000 payment
Last week I met Keith Bell. He was a sub-postmaster in Stockton for 15 years until he was wrongly convicted of false accounting in 2002.
He knew he hadn’t stolen money from his post office, but very valiantly admitted the offence because the books hadn’t balanced and ultimate responsibility rested with him. He was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, but the conviction meant the loss of his career and stopped him from being able to get any other work to provide for his family, ultimately leading to bankruptcy.
Life over the last 20 years had been a “struggle”, he told me.
It wasn’t until the furore over the ITV drama Mr Bates Versus The Post Office that Keith realised he had been the victim of what then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (remember him?) described as “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history.”
When I met him, reporting for BBC Radio Tees, he told me he had just received the second instalment of a £600,000 compensation payment from the government.
Given the enormous disruption he suffered as a victim of the scandal, he could have gone through the courts, who would have calculated the monetary damage he received as a result of the wrongful conviction, and potentially received an even higher amount.
At the age of 76, however, Keith wanted to cash in his chips and provide for his three grandchildren.
“There's parts of my life I'll never be able to have over, but now I've got a chance to do things I haven't been able to do,” he said.
“I decided that at my age I wanted to accept the offer that was given to me, I could have appealed for more, but that would have meant the process going on for years.”
You can read his story on the BBC News website, or listen to my chat with him at this link.
Teesside stories you may have missed…
🏛️ Stockton-on-Tees Council has agreed its budget for next year
📦 Cleveland Fire Brigade rescued a child who became stuck in a parcel locker in Redcar
🏥 The chief executive of a beleaguered mental health trust is leaving
Work to begin on Darlington garden village
Ground works are set to begin on an enormous new garden village to the north east of Darlington.
Burtree Garden Village will see around 2,000 new homes built on a site roughly 1.5km long and 1km wide between the A68 and Burtree Lane, and is expected to take around 20 years to complete.
Gavin Cordwell-Smith, chief executive of developers Hellens Group, said: “This development will provide much-needed housing, employment space, and infrastructure, contributing to the long-term prosperity of Darlington. We now look forward to starting work on-site in the coming weeks.”
Meanwhile, a second garden village at Skerningham is also due to be built, despite protests over destruction of ancient woodland.
Needless to say, I had the last laugh…
I wrote in the last edition that “the most tedious argument in Teesside politics” was over, but I hadn’t factored in Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen’s need to have the final word on the saga of the removal of the Linthorpe Road cycle lane in Middlesbrough.
On social media this week, the Conservative mayor posed with a novelty over-sized cheque boasting that Middlesbrough Council had been paid to remove the controversial bike lane, which said it was “Fully paid for” by Ben Houchen.
“We fought to get Middlesbrough Council to scrap this disastrous scheme,” he wrote, ignoring the fact the original £1.7m cheque to build it was delivered to the council by his Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), and conveniently ignoring the fact that Middlesbrough Council agreed with the removal, but were waiting for legal guarantees about the cash to be delivered.
I’m told removal of the cycle lane and re-instating the road layout will cost roughly £1.2m (that’s what “fully paid for” means).
Lord Houchen conveniently omitted to mention the fact that the original £1.7m used to build the cycle lane will now have to be paid back to central government from TVCA’s coffers, since it was issued by Westminster on condition of the cycle lane being built.
No cycle lane means the terms of that grant have not been met.
Hartlepool Deadpool fan dies
Riley Bains, a nine-year old from Hartlepool whose dying wish was to meet Ryan Reynolds, has died.
Riley’s plea to meet the Deadpool actor went viral after the Canadian actor (and co-owner of Wrexham AFC) sent him a video message, and invited him to Wrexham’s Racecourse ground.
He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2023 and had his lower leg amputated, but the cancer returned and spread.
Reynolds bought Wrexham AFC with fellow actor Rob McElhenney after the duo considered taking the reins at Hartlepool United.
Reynolds described Riley as “an inspiration”.
That’s it for another edition.
I’m easy to reach if you want to get in touch… teesside@thelead.uk or via BlueSky.
Enjoy the rest of your week, I’ll be back on Sunday.
Leigh