Labour’s blind spot on nuclear power will cost Britain dearly

The last few weeks have been a wake-up call for Britain. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, it’s clearer than ever that we can no longer rely on old assumptions about global stability. Britain needs to stand on its own two feet — and that means securing a resilient and independent energy supply.

CEN MP Tom Tugendhat

The clear solution is nuclear power. Without it, Britain’s energy vulnerability could make our economy falter. We’re already running down the tank without knowing where the next pit stop is. The days of cheap Russian gas are over, and China’s dominance over critical minerals needed for renewable energy has left us dangerously exposed.

But instead of grasping the scale of the threat, Labour is sleepwalking into an energy crisis. We need to strengthen Britain’s resilience now and should be leaning into our proud nuclear legacy to do so — securing a reliable domestic energy source that can keep the lights on regardless of geopolitical turmoil. Instead, Ed Miliband has chosen virtue signalling green and ignoring the only true carbon-free economy possible.

Labour’s 2030 clean power plan is pure fantasy. It’s a policy drawn up to please activists, not to protect British households. By overriding local opposition to wind and solar projects and creating the pointless GB Energy quango, Labour is sacrificing long-term energy stability and putting UK industry at risk. Worse still, they’ve chosen to delay critical decisions on new nuclear projects — even as the need for clean, secure energy becomes more urgent.

The latest spending review now suggests cuts of up to £10 billion for new small modular reactor (SMR) projects. What was supposed to be three new contracts for the reactors could now be cut to just one — a devastating blow that risks shifting an entire industry we have led on up to now, abroad. 

While this is happening we are urgently trying to rearm. But we can’t regenerate our industrial base while energy prices in Britain are so much higher than those in similar countries. We’ve hamstrung ourselves before even starting the race.

Labour’s neglect of nuclear power doesn’t just leave us exposed to hostile states; it actively undermines Britain’s nuclear legacy. Britain was the first nation in the world to operate a commercial nuclear power plant — a testament to British innovation. Nuclear energy has supported 60,000 well-paid jobs in some of the UK’s most deprived areas and contributes £6.2 billion annually to the economy.

Yet Labour believes that Britain’s nuclear industry should be left to wither. Since the 1990s, nuclear production has fallen from 27 to 15 percent of our national energy supply. That decline isn’t accidental — it’s the result of political choices. Conservatives recognised this danger and acted, commissioning Hinkley Point C and establishing Great British Nuclear (an energy company owned by the Government) in 2023. But with Labour in charge, those hard-won gains are at risk.

We also need to push back against the SNP’s ideological opposition to nuclear. The party’s rejection of nuclear energy isn’t just short-sighted — it’s a threat to national security, leaving Scotland, and the whole of the UK, poorer. If Britain is to reclaim energy independence, we need nuclear capacity across the whole country.

For the sake of our national security, the Conservatives must reclaim the mantle of nuclear leadership. Labour’s ideological obsession with wind and solar — technologies that cannot provide the consistent baseload power that nuclear offers — is a strategic mistake. Britain’s future depends on a pragmatic, market-driven approach to nuclear.

That means cutting red tape. The Conservative environment network’s new policy paper lays out how. Britain should adopt a fast-track approval process for nuclear reactor designs already approved by trusted foreign regulators, such as those in South Korea and France. The delays to Hinkley Point C, caused by excessive design modifications, not only pushed back the project’s timeline but also increased the need for steel and concrete by 35 and 25 percent respectively. Streamlining this process would save time and money — and deliver reliable power sooner.

British families deserve to feel safe in the knowledge that their energy supply isn’t a hostage to Moscow or Beijing. Labour talks tough on defence — but when it comes to energy security, Mr Miliband’s rhetoric is hollow. The Conservatives have always been the party of pragmatism and national resilience. Now is the time to prove it — by putting nuclear back at the heart of Britain’s energy strategy.

First published by The Telegraph. Tom Tugendhat is the Member of Parliament for Tonbridge.