THE leader of Southampton City Council has lobbied the Government for a level playing field as Liverpool makes a second bid to muscle in on the city’s lucrative cruise trade.

Councillor Royston Smith, backed by port owners ABP, has written to the Secretary of State for Transport urging rejection of a request to allow Liverpool to use a £20m taxpayer - funded turnaround terminal as a start and finish cruise port.

It comes as ABP announced it was investing £30m in a fifth cruise terminal for Southampton. It is due to open in 2013, handling an additional 90 cruise calls a year, worth £150m to the local economy.

Cllr Smith said in a letter to Philip Hammond: “Southampton has positioned itself as the cruise capital of northern Europe by means of private investment.

“If Liverpool wish to compete with Southampton let them repay their public subsidy and compete on a level playing field.

“To do otherwise is an abuse of public funding and must be considered as ‘state aid’.”

Cllr Smith’s intervention is the latest in a bitter row between the two port cities.

Brian Simpson, a Liverpool Euro MP who chairs a powerful European Parliament transport committee, recently trashed state aid objections as “flimsy”.

Current transport minister Mike Penning is considering Liverpool’s application.

Former Labour transport minister Paul Clark rejected a similar bid from Liverpool less than a year ago. Cllr Smith said nothing had changed.