THE cruise row between Southampton and Liverpool will drag on until May after ministers missed the deadline to make a decision.

The Department for Transport is supposed to be telling Liverpool how much cash it must repay to win the right to launch cruises and muscle in on Southampton’s lucrative industry.

But the paperwork was not completed in time and no decision was announced before MPs left Westminster last week for their Easter break.

And now Whitehall is in its period of ‘purdah’ before the local council elections on May 3, during which time no potentially vote-winning financial announcements can be made.

The new delay opens up the possibility that no settlement will have been reached by the time that “turnaround” cruises restart from Liverpool, currently pencilled in for May 29.

John Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, said: “Liverpool seems to be pressing ahead without bothering to get any sort of approval whatsoever.

The Government has not got a grip on the situation, and is allowing Liverpool to get away with things it really shouldn’t.

@For good reason, there are all sorts of competition laws that have to be followed.”

In January, shipping minister Mike Penning ruled that Liverpool’s proposal to refund only £5.3m of the £9.2m Government grant it received to build its cruise terminal was “insufficient” to allow restrictions on its operation to be lifted. But the Merseysiders then vowed to plough on regardless of what the Government decides, promising to repay whatever sum is recommended by the expert panel appointed by the Department for Transport (DfT) – to the anger of rival ports including Southampton.

The DfT is desperate to avoid possible legal action by another port, which would claim that state aid rules have been broken.

The Daily Echo understands that the independent panel has recommended a fresh figure to the DfT, but it failed to clear the paperwork in time for an announcement last week.

A separate £8.6m grant that Liverpool received from the European Union to build its terminal also needs to be dealt with. No offer has been made to repay this cash, and EU bosses have said they will be monitoring the UK Government’s actions to check they comply with competition law.