LEADING business figures last night pleaded with campaigners to drop a legal challenge threatening the new £451m Royal Liverpool Hospital.

The five men, including Liverpool Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jack Stopforth and Rod Holmes, chairman of The Mersey Partnership, wrote to the Daily Post to say the rebuilt hospital could be the key to the city’s long-term economic revival.

They said failure to build a biocampus next to the hospital could result in the loss of tens of thousands of new jobs in the bio-science, construction and health sectors.

The Daily Post revealed last week how the hospital project was in doubt.

A High Court judgment threw out a bid by Keep Our NHS Public campaigner Sam Semoff to take the plans to a judicial review.

But he appealed immediately, filing for an oral hearing.

Chiefs said this delay could make companies bidding to build the project nervous, putting it in jeopardy.

But Mr Semoff is convinced the use of Private Finance Initiative cash to build the hospital will leave Merseyside’s health service in crippling debt for years to come.

He said this will have a detrimental effect on future services.