In his bid to boost nuclear power, the prime minister Keir Starmer ignored warnings from his nuclear safety watchdog that it was inaccurate to blame regulation for delays, The Ferret can reveal.
A document released under freedom of information law discloses that the UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation told the government that claims about delays to nuclear power, made in an initial draft of an announcement by Starmer, were “not true”.
However, the claims were repeated in the prime minister’s final announcement in February, which said the Labour government would “rip up rules to fire up nuclear power”.
Campaigners said they were appalled by Starmer’s “cynical and unprofessional” approach, accusing him of “ignorant prejudice” and of borrowing language from a right wing pressure group. They warned that weakening the regulation of nuclear plants would put public safety at risk.
The draft release also quoted the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, promising that nuclear power would be “built by unionised British workers”. But that was changed in the published version to say that nuclear power would create “thousands of skilled jobs”.
The Labour government in London under Starmer and Miliband has become an enthusiastic cheerleader for nuclear power. Ministers are keen to kickstart a new nuclear building programme “to grow the economy and deliver cleaner, more affordable energy”.
Scottish Labour under Anas Sarwar MSP has also become a strong supporter of nuclear power. Labour and the Conservatives have been piling pressure on the SNP’s Scottish Government to abandon its long-held opposition to the building of any new nuclear stations.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is an independent body set up by the government to ensure nuclear safety. It was asked to comment on a draft government press release announcing a new taskforce to speed up the regulation of nuclear power.
In response to a freedom of information request, ONR released a copy of the draft with its annotations making four suggested corrections. The draft was passed to The Ferret.
But none of the corrections were implemented when Starmer made the announcement on 6 February, promising to “put Britain back in the global race for nuclear energy”.
The draft release stated that three European regulatory regimes had reached “different assessments” of the design of the two reactors being built at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, “leading to delays and increased costs”.
ONR pointed out that this was “not accurate”, and that it had refuted such claims before. “Our feeling is that linking regulatory factors into the increasing Hinkley Point C costs and timeframes isn’t true and the sentence doesn’t stand up,” it said.
ONR also suggested that the new taskforce should not look at the “approval” of new reactor designs, as suggested in the draft, but their “deployment”. Delays had been caused by construction problems, not safety regulation, it argued.
“The approval of reactor designs is a small aspect of ONR’s regulatory regime and not a rate-determining factor,” ONR said. “The reactor approval process has no bearing on the overall speed of delivery, but rather construction.”
Neither amendment was made in Starmer’s announcement, which reiterated the disputed wording from the draft. It also included a slew of much stronger language about “slashing red tape to get Britain building”.
Two other amendments suggested by ONR – pointing out that Hinkley Point C had been “built over many years” and that the “international alignment” of regulators was already happening – were also rejected.
Nuclear power delays
The energy company EDF predicted in 2007 that electricity from Hinkley Point C would be cooking Christmas turkeys in 2017. It has since been repeatedly delayed, with EDF saying in January 2024 that the station might not be finished until 2031.
The estimated total cost of building the plant has risen from £18bn in 2016 to £35bn in 2024. This could rise to £46bn when inflation is taken into account.
According to ONR, its assessment of the Hinkley reactor design was completed in 2012 but construction did not start until 2017. Its regulation had not delayed building since then, it said.
In his announcement, Starmer also promised to scrap the planning rules that limited the building of new nuclear power stations in England and Wales to eight sites which have already hosted nuclear plants. He wanted to encourage developers to build “mini-nuclear power stations” anywhere they are needed, he said.
In June the government is expected to make a final investment decision on the construction of the delayed new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk. It has already invested some £8bn in the plant.
Campaigners claimed many of the arguments used in Starmer’s nuclear announcement echoed those previously aired by the right-wing campaign group, Britain Remade. Its chief executive, Sam Richards, is a former advisor to Boris Johnson, and its head of policy, Sam Dumitriu, used to work for the free-market Adam Smith Institute.
Starmer’s nuclear announcement ‘misleading’
Dave Cullen, who co-chairs a forum for ONR and campaign groups, criticised Starmer’s announcement as “misleading”. He is with the nuclear disarmament think tank, BASIC, and is independent of ONR.
“I’m shocked by the cynical and unprofessional approach of the government to this announcement,” he said. “It seems as though it would rather attack an imaginary problem than seriously consider how to approach energy security.”
Cullen added: “I welcome good-faith efforts to improve nuclear regulation, but this is an attempt to tear up a system that is there to keep us safe, on the basis of a fantasy.”
Andrew Blowers, an anti-nuclear campaigner and emeritus professor of social sciences at The Open University, accused Starmer of “ignorant prejudice” in blaming regulators for delays.
“Efforts to pressurise regulators feed directly into a free for all, devil take the hindmost, approach to nuclear development,” he told The Ferret. “Deregulation will remove safeguards and the need for industry to meet the strictest standards of safety.”
In its FoI response, ONR said the draft press release was “shared under a strict embargo just a few days before release”, with an opportunity “to make representations on accuracy”.
It continued: “Dialogue about specific sections of the press release, and in some cases, representations made about the accuracy of sentences/sections is standard practice discussion between communications teams.”
ONR had not been consulted on the “formation and membership” of the new nuclear regulatory taskforce,” but it had been “fully briefed” on the government’s intentions,” an ONR spokesperson added.
“We have welcomed the creation of the taskforce and look forward to discussing all aspects of our regulation with the review team, understanding how our regulation can be improved further and considering ways to speed up the safe delivery of new nuclear projects.”
The ONR spokesperson continued: “Nuclear safety and the protection of workers and the public will always be our priority, but we are committed to regulating in a way that supports cost-effective, efficient nuclear deployment and technological advancements.”
Responding on behalf of the government, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero did not address the rejection of ONR’s corrections. “It would not have been appropriate for ONR to be closely involved in the setting up of this taskforce,” said a spokesperson.
“They have been informed of the review and will provide an important source of expertise as it progresses.”
Britain Remade did not respond to requests to comment.
Freedom of information response from the Office for Nuclear Regulation
Draft press release with comments by the Office for Nuclear Regulation
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A version of this story was also published in the Guardian. Cover image of Torness nuclear power station in East Lothian thanks to iStock/versevend.
At the request of the Office for Nuclear Regulation, an additional paragraph of its comment was added to this story at 11.34 on 6 May 2025.
