Blair obsessed with nuclear legacy

Former New Labour advisor says Blair lied to Commons committee

Reacting to Tony Blair's comments this morning in support of new nuclear power stations, Greenpeace executive director Stephen Tindale said:

"Tony Blair wants his legacy to be new nuclear power stations, but his obsession threatens to scupper this country's renewable energy industry. He wants to tie the country into a centralised energy generation system that relies on huge, inefficient, polluting power stations instead of pushing money towards clean cutting edge technologies." Mr Tindale, a former New Labour environment adviser, added:

"Mr Blair claims he's only just changed his mind about nuclear power, but I know for a fact he's being dishonest. He's been pro-nuclear for at least ten years. I know because I used to be his party's adviser on green issues. His casual misleading of MPs in symptomatic of his campaign to foist new nuclear stations on Britain. The facts simply don't seem to matter to this Prime Minister.

"Germany is phasing out nuclear power and installing more wind power every year than Britain's total capacity. The UK government has a chance to follow this lead, but it seems sense will only prevail once Blair leaves Downing Street. The energy debate is too important to be decided by a lame duck."

Commenting on the soon to be published energy review, the Prime Minister this morning told the Commons Liaison Committee he had changed his mind since the last White Paper on energy policy in 2003. "Whereas we left the question open and we were very sceptical at that point, certainly, I'll be totally honest with you, I've changed my mind," he said.


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