China banned from investing in Sizewell C, energy secretary Ed Miliband vows

China will be blocked from investing in the new Sizewell C power station, the energy secretary has said.

It comes as the chancellor announced plans to pump billions of pounds into Britain’s nuclear energy sector, putting £14.2bn towards the new plant’s construction.

Asked whether China would be able to invest in the new power station in Suffolk, Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No.”

But he declined to rule out investment from other foreign governments, saying: “I’m not going to go into who the private bidders are. We’ve got a process at the moment.

“It’s majority public investment in this, in Sizewell C. We’re going to get some private investment in, but obviously, that always goes through national security checks.

“It’s about making sure that any bidders … are people you would want owning part of your nuclear power station.”

It comes amid growing concerns over the impact of Chinese influence on British infrastructure and supply chains.

In April, government officials and British Steel staff found themselves scrambling to save its blast furnaces after what ministers believe was a plot to sabotage the Scunthorpe plant by its Chinese owners.

MPs passed emergency legislation allowing the government to seize control of British Steel after Jingye, its Chinese owner, appeared to be gearing up to turn off the blast furnaces at the site.

China was initially involved in the Sizewell C nuclear power station, but in 2022, the UK government forced Beijing out, spending £679m of taxpayer cash as part of an exit deal.

The China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) was also an initial investor in the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, on which Sizewell is modelled, giving it a 33.5 per cent stake. But it halted funding in 2023 amid mounting tension between London and Beijing, meaning its one-third stake has been receding in recent years.

In 2016, CGN was charged by the US government with nuclear espionage, resulting in an employee being sentenced to two years in prison. The 17-page indictment accused the company and its employees of having unlawfully conspired to develop nuclear material in China without US approval and “with the intent to secure an advantage to the People’s Republic of China”.

The multi-billion pound investment in Sizewell C will be confirmed by the chancellor at the GMB union’s annual congress on Tuesday, just days before she is expected to make sweeping cuts to unprotected departments at Wednesday’s spending review.

The Suffolk plant, which ministers said would power the equivalent of 6 million homes, is expected to take around a decade to complete, with officials hoping it will be operational before the end of the 2030s.

It is central to delivering a “golden age of clean energy abundance”, the energy secretary said, arguing it would boost Britain’s energy security by reducing reliance on buying power from overseas.