Spending review latest: Government accused of not ‘coming clean’ over full costs of Sizewell C nuclear plant

The Independent’s political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Nigel Farage has turned Zia Yusuf’s resignation into a joke, telling journalists at a London press conference that he had “crawled out under the wire and was running away in the woods as fast as he possible could”.

The Reform UK leader added that his ex-chairman had left “a trail of not so brilliant tweets behind”.

But he said Mr Yusuf is now “back inside”, heading up the party’s government efficiency arm – DOGE.

Mr Yusuf then joked that he was so exhausted that he realised the only way to get some rest was to resign and then come back after a couple of days off.

Plans have been underway for years for a new two-reactor nuclear power station to be built on the east Sussex coastline with hopes that it could generate 3.2 gigawatts of electricity.

French energy company EDF have claimed that the plant will power the equivalent of six million homes, and is planned to be operational in the 2030s.

This means is could potentially generate electricity for 60 years.

At the peak of construction, Sizewell C is expected to provide 10,000 jobs and the company behind the project has already signed £330 million worth of contracts with local businesses.

Located close to the town of Leiston, it will sit next to Sizewell B that has been operating since 1995, and the decommissioned Sizewell A site.

The Independent’s Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin reports:

Electoral Commission figures out today make positive reading for the Conservative leader.

After weeks of difficult headlines, amid reports Tory MPs are starting to organise against her, she finally has some good news for her party.

The Tories managed to raise twice as much money as Reform – and almost as much as Labour and Lib Dems combined in the first quarter of 2025.

Donors have given the Tories £3.36m compared to Reform with almost £1.5m, Labour on £2.3m and the Lib Dems on £1.5m.

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

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.”

Alison Downes, of Stop Sizewell C, said ministers had not “come clean” about the full cost of the project, which the group have previously estimated could be some £40 billion.

She said: “Where is the benefit for voters in ploughing more money into Sizewell C that could be spent on other priorities, and when the project will add to consumer bills and is guaranteed to be late and overspent just like Hinkley C?”

Rachel Reeves has agreed to pump billions of pounds into Britain’s nuclear energy sector, putting £14.2bn towards construction of the new Sizewell C nuclear power station.

The multi-billion pound investment 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 six million homes, is expected to take around a decade to complete, with officials hoping it will be operational before the end of the 2030s.