A PARLIAMENTARY candidate has blasted the Government for what he calls a ‘shocking betrayal’ of west Cumbria over new nuclear.

Josh MacAlister, the Labour candidate for Whitehaven and Workington, claims information revealed in answers to parliamentary questions tabled by Labour MP Sarah Jones on his behalf, show  ‘at best, disinterest and disengagement, and at worst, complete negligence’.

In response to the questions, Andrew Bowie, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, said the department has had ‘multiple engagements’ with Solway Community Power Company but has not yet made any assessment on their proposal to build two SMRs at Moorside.

Mr Bowie also said that the Government made no economic impact assessment following the collapse of the NuGen deal in 2018 to assess the impact this would have on electricity generation, job creation and investment in west Cumbria because it was not a government project.

Josh said: “I asked Labour’s frontbench team to submit these questions because I suspected they would be very revealing.

“What the answers show is, despite warm words from Ministers, the Government has done nothing to progress new nuclear power here.

 “No thought was given to the impact of the collapse of the NuGen deal. No assessment has been made of a £6billion proposal to build two small modular reactors. It is a shocking betrayal of West Cumbria which shows at best, disinterest and disengagement, and at worst, complete negligence.

 “I urge local people to beware false promises from the Tories about delivering new nuclear power at the next general election and judge them on what they’ve done over the last 14 years, which is nothing.

 “Labour will turbocharge development of new nuclear power stations and if I am lucky enough to be elected as your Labour MP I will move heaven and earth to get west Cumbria to the front of the queue. We deserve nothing less.”

Andrew Johnson, the Conservative candidate for Whitehaven and Workington, said: "It's a bit rich for the Labour Party to cite comments around a shocking betrayal of west Cumbria when they plan to stop the new coking coal mine and prevent 500+ local people taking up a new well-paid job.

"That's a real betrayal.

“On nuclear, this is just scaremongering from the party that actively campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister, including London MP Sarah Jones, knowing full well he was anti-nuclear between 2015 and 2019.

“In that period, who in their right mind would want to invest in nuclear when there was a very real prospect that he might become Prime Minister? In contrast, the Conservatives have always been pro-nuclear and pro-nuclear in west Cumbria.

“This government has been absolutely clear that Moorside remains firmly on the table as a candidate for new nuclear and one of a number of potential sites that could host civil nuclear projects, given that the land is currently in the ownership of the NDA.

“Great British Nuclear is currently running a competitive process which closes in June to select SMR technologies and in the case of Moorside, it would be natural for the site’s location adjacent to Sellafield to be factored into any decision around the deployment of those technologies when that competitive process has concluded.

“In addition, I have also written to the Secretary of State for Energy promoting Moorside and West Cumbria as the prime destination for new nuclear."