Chinese role in Sizewell C will be next Huawei, say senior MPS

CHINESE involvement in the Sizewell C nuclear power station will be the “next Huawei”, MPS have warned, as they called for an entire overhaul of the energy policy.

The warning comes after EDF, the French energy company, yesterday submitted an application to build the next nuclear power plant in Suffolk, which it intends to develop with the state owned energy company, China General Nuclear Power Group.

However Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said the power plant would be “the next Huawei”.

“It is another major manifestation of the problem we face having set out on the wrong path with China years ago,” Sir Iain told The Daily Telegraph.

“With Huawei, with Sizewell C, one by one you will see the scale of dependency we have created on China, and we have to deal with it.”

Earlier this week, security officials launched a review of Huawei’s involvement in Britain’s 5G network in the wake of US sanctions.

“I think our whole energy policy needs to be reviewed in light of our issue with China,” Sir Iain added.

He urged the Government to address “fundamental errors” within the energy policy, as he cautioned that, by pursuing a nuclear deal with China, it would only make the UK “more dependent on China as we create more power stations”. He cited “plenty of other sources of genuine British-produced energy” that would be “quicker and cheaper” than working with China.

“We don’t need to do this. It is a complete mistake now to even think about going ahead with this,” he said.

His thoughts were echoed by Bob Seely, part of a group of Tory MPS opposed to Huawei, who warned that, while an amount of trade with China was needed, he was “concerned that if we become dependent on Chinesebuilt critical national infrastructure (CNI) in the UK we may live to regret it”.

“Sadly, the China of the last 20 years has been replaced by a new Chinese leadership which is much more combative and frankly ideological,” Mr Seely said. The Isle of Wight MP called for “a thorough review of how the UK, and the Western alliance, interacts with China”, before “highly significant decisions” are progressed.

Meanwhile, Nick Timothy, former adviser to Theresa May, who has previously warned in this newspaper of the UK’S need to stand up to China, said: “This is as serious as the decision to allow Huawei into our telecommunications network.”