Liz Truss has been asked to stop a plant closure that might cause serious food and drink shortages throughout the country.
A group led by former British Army chief Lord Dannatt is asking the leading candidate for prime minister to support its bid to purchase a facility that contributes more than a third of the country’s CO2 and is essential to the packaging of fresh meat and vegetables.
Beginning later this month, the Teesside facility will be closed for an unknown amount of time.
However, when its owner, US-based CF Industries, shut down its sister facility in Cheshire earlier this year, there are fears that the interim shutdown may become permanent.
In order to avoid food shortages in the UK, the government first agreed to bail out the Cheshire plant with £10 million last September. But in June, it was shut down.
Liz Truss has been urged to prevent the closure of a factory that could herald severe food and drink shortages nationwide
UK Nitrogen, chaired by Lord Dannatt, wants to strike a deal with CF after the American firm said soaring energy costs made production ‘uneconomical’.
CF supplies roughly 40 per cent of Britain’s CO2 as a by-product of making fertisliser.
A source at UK Nitrogen said: ‘Clearly, the US company is not a fit and proper organisation to run such a strategically important facility.
‘It has proved this by threatening to close – and then actually closing.’
The group wants Ms Truss to use her influence to help push through a takeover attempt when she moves into Downing Street.
A previous offer by UK Nitrogen was rejected by CF.
The source said the group wants help from the Government to ‘make supplies available at an affordable price’.
CO2 is used for everything from the humane slaughter of chickens and pigs, to putting the fizz in soft drinks and packing meat, salad and vegetables to keep them fresh.
A Whitehall source said some food and drink firms may suffer shortages from CF’s shutdown but stressed that critical infrastructure demand would be met through a separate CO2 facility in Yorkshire.
The source said another bailout will not be provided.