I welcome the return of this important Bill from Committee and I am pleased to support it, as is the Labour party. Indeed, although our NHS is the Attlee Government’s greatest achievement, it was his Labour Government who approved this country’s first nuclear reactors, which have been supplying clean energy ever since.
It is regrettable that it has taken the Conservatives more than a decade in office to bring forward these new plans to finance and ensure that we have the next generation of nuclear that we need. I am concerned that much of our domestic expertise and supply chain capacity has eroded in that time, but it is still true that if the best time to build a nuclear plant was 10 years ago, the second-best time is today. This is especially important with the retirement of Hunterston B last week, which alone provided 1 GW of the UK’s 7.9 GW nuclear capacity—enough to power 1.7 million homes.
As our energy bills rocket in the months to come, as a result of huge volatility in the international gas markets, we will be reminded yet again of the importance of the diversification, sovereignty, security and constancy of our power supplies, which Labour’s amendments address. Ensuring that there is a further generation of nuclear plants is the best way to address that as well as to be environmentally sustainable as we seek net zero.
There are too many myths about nuclear power that undermine it in the public mind and in pockets of this place. Let us hear the facts: nuclear power has the lowest lifecycle carbon of all technologies, the lowest land use of all low-carbon technologies, the lowest mining and metal use of all low-carbon technologies and the highest employment multiplier of all low-carbon technologies. Those peddling such myths rely on misleading comparisons, over-optimism about alternatives and wholly outdated concerns about safety that do not reflect the reality of modern nuclear plants. We should not be scared of making the positive case for nuclear, and making it strongly and proudly. Nuclear is safe and reliable, and it directly creates quality, high-paying and unionised jobs, as well as supporting many more in its supply chain.
5.45 pm
I declare an interest, as Warrington North has the third-most nuclear jobs of any constituency in the country, despite not having a nuclear plant. Indeed, I recently visited Hinkley Point C with the all-party parliamentary group on nuclear energy, to see for myself the fruits of the labour of the thousands of my Warrington North constituents who work in its supply chain, alongside many other nuclear workers, on all aspects—from new build to decommissioning, nuclear medicine and nuclear propulsion for space flight. Moltex, based in Birchwood in my constituency, is currently working on stable salt reactors, which would recycle nuclear waste from older fleets of reactors by using it as the fuel for future fleets.
These are good jobs, in stark contrast to the increasing casualisation of our labour market and the gig economy more widely. High-quality apprenticeships, including at the university technical college in Warrington, involve working with employers such as Sellafield, and they open up great opportunities for my constituents in high-skilled roles in a world-class industry. We are proud of them and would welcome many more.