The Liberal Democrat Tees Valley mayoral candidate pledges to take back millions of pounds he believes were wrongly given away in the Teesworks deal.

Simon Thorley, a businessman from Darlington, is standing against incumbent Conservative Ben Houchen and Labour's Chris McEwan in the election on Thursday (May 2).

He has hit out at Lord Houchen for "disgracefully" signing away money in the controversial Teesworks deal which increased the ownership of the former Redcar steelworks site by two private businessmen from 50 per cent to 90 per cent.

Mr Thorley believes that he is the only candidate who will return the lost profits to the people of Teesside.

He said: “The renovation of the old Redcar steelworks – now South Tees Development Corporation – is well underway, and more than £560m of public money has been invested so far.

"More than half of that money has been borrowed, which local taxpayers will have to pay back. Given that the public has ultimately put all of the money in, you'd expect us to get all of the profits out. Unfortunately, Conservative mayor Lord Houchen has had other ideas.

"He signed a deal which gives away - literally gives away, for nothing - the rights to 90 per cent of the profits on the site.

"I wish I was exaggerating, but sadly I'm not. That really is the deal which he has signed. On 2nd May, I'm standing for Mayor on a firm promise to return those lost profits to the public, where they belong.

"We can't rely on the developers to simply cooperate out of the goodness of their hearts, so if renegotiations are unsuccessful, I'll impose a mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy on the STDC site.

"This will ensure that when development occurs at the STDC site, we receive our rightful share of the returns. It's the only fair thing to do.

"I am the only one who can do this: not only does Lord Houchen not care that he disgracefully signed a truly terrible deal and handed millions to private investors, but he actually said that, if given the chance, he’d do so again. We mustn’t give him the chance to further deprive the people of the Tees Valley of what’s rightfully theirs.

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"Meanwhile, Chris McEwan doesn’t have a clue what he’d actually do if he won power. The Liberal Democrats are the only ones with a plan ready to go to solve this whole mess. To get the people of Tees Valley the value for money they deserve, I need your support on 2nd May."

Lord Houchen vehemently disagrees with claims that the Teesworks deal was a bad deal.

He previously stated that the deal would return £1.3bn to the local economy over the next 40 years. He said: "It’s a deal I would do every day of the week."

The Tees Valley mayoral election will be held on Thursday, May 2. 

Ben Houchen is fighting for his third term as mayor against Labour candidate Chris McEwan and Simon Thorley for the Liberal Democrats.