Peter Mandelson: Sign nuclear deal within weeks

A new power station in Britain partly-funded by China should be given the go-ahead as it would be “commercially, globally suicidal” for Beijing to use it to target the UK’s national security, Lord Mandelson said today.

The former Business Secretary believes the £18 billion deal for the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant should be signed within weeks.

The Government ordered a surprise delay in agreeing the project last month, hours before Chinese and French executives were due to arrive in Somerset for a signing ceremony.

Under former Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans, French utility EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corp would fund the cost of building two water reactors at Hinkley C.

But concerns have been raised over China funding a third of the scheme and that London may have agreed too high a minimum price for the power to be generated by the plant.

Lord Mandelson, the Great Britain China Centre president, believes concerns are legitimate but there is a “very low likelihood” of Beijing using Hinkley to compromise UK national security.

“It would be commercially, globally suicidal for China if they were to invest on the one hand and then try to mess around with other countries’ security the next,” he told BBC radio.