The fight to bring forward naval contracts to save more than 1,500 shipbuilding jobs on the Tyne is to be taken personally to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, it can be revealed.

Newcastle East MP Nick Brown has secured a meeting with the Cabinet minister in less than two weeks' time in which he has promised Swan Hunter workers he will press home their case.

He is also intending to highlight the plight of the Wallsend yard during a high-profile Commons debate today where he will attack the failure by ministers and Ministry of Defence officials to help cover a shortfall in the shipbuilder's order books.

Defence Procurement Minister Lord Bach recently warned ministers had "no solution" to the problem of falling orders, ruling out financial support when Swan Hunter runs out of work in 2006.

But Mr Brown said he would personally raise the issue with Mr Hoon during his meeting at the beginning of November, saying: "I want to make the point that the North has underpinned the Government's shipbuilding programme and now we face some difficulties.

"This is quite an ambitious programme that we are undertaking, post-Trident, and we need to look at the phasing of projects.

"Swan Hunter and Tyneside has helped underpin all this success and what we need now is for this industry and our sector to be a real part of the Government's industrial strategy."

The Government has developed a "defence industrial policy" when considering new contracts, with officials warned to pay attention to helping retain skills and jobs in regions as well as making judgments about value-for-money.

Mr Brown, though, said it was essential officials and ministers met half-way when considering defence projects, with a new alliance needed that balanced the need to keep skills in a region and provide value-for-money for the taxpayers.

"This could work and we could be part of that. This is something I will raise with Geoff Hoon."

The MP was reacting after Lord Bach's comments last week, in which he said it was "hard to see how any (shipbuilding) programme could be brought forward.

"State aid for shipyards in Britain is not something that we are looking at.

"There have been no discussions on this subject, and we do not feel it is an answer."

Swan Hunter's current contract to build the £160m Largs Bay and Lyme Bay sister ships for the MoD runs out in 2006, and a 10-year order to help build two £2.9bn aircraft carriers for the Navy will not start until at least 2008, leaving a two-year gap the company is now desperate to fill.

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