GORDON BROWN backs more nuclear power stations in Britain in a move today that makes it certain that the Government will soon approve the commissioning of new plants.

Any hopes of anti-nuclear campaigners and many Labour MPs that a change of prime minister might see a reversal of Labour’s pro-nuclear stance will be extinguished by the Chancellor’s article in The Times today in which he explicitly supports new stations.

At the same time he clears away one of the last remaining areas of potential policy difference with Tony Blair, helping what most politicians believe will be a handover of power within 12 months.

The Government’s energy review is due to report within weeks. The widespread expectation is that it will recommend that the power gap will have to be filled by a mix of more renewable sources, greater fuel efficiency and nuclear stations, probably built on existing sites.

Mr Brown has never uttered anti-nuclear sentiments but his emphasis has always been on the need to justify the long-term costs of waste disposal and decommissioning.

Today he leaves no doubt. Mr Brown writes that over the coming weeks and months “we will demonstrate our enhanced flexibility with further reforms in planning, skills and labour markets, and in energy policy, including new nuclear”.

A Treasury source said yesterday that the Chancellor had accepted the argument in principle for more nuclear stations and would do what was necessary to achieve them. He added that Mr Brown still believed that the key issue was to hammer out the commercial and financial details to ensure that it represented the best deal for the country.

Sources said that companies were watching the situation to see whether they were to be given a blank cheque, and they needed to know that the Government would be hard-headed in negotiations over new building. “But Gordon is up for nuclear, no doubt.”

Mr Brown’s endorsement of nuclear power came as Mr Blair gave yet another hint that his own mind was made up. After a summit in Paris with President Chirac, the Prime Minister said that a new agreement to share nuclear expertise showed that energy policy was “right at the top of the agenda”. A bilateral nuclear forum will bring together ministers, business and experts from each side of the Channel.

Mr Blair said: “The establishment of a British-Franco nuclear forum will allow us to discuss all the policy issues. One thing is for sure: this policy, for reasons of energy security, is right at the top of the agenda.”

He insisted that he was not pre-empting the results of the energy review. But people would look back with anger in 20 or 30 years if today’s politicians ducked the decisions that could secure electricity supplies for the future.

Mr Blair said: “We have 20 per cent of our electricity today from nuclear power. In 15 or 20 years’ time, that’s gone. Today we are 80 or 90 per cent self-sufficient in gas and oil. In 15 or 20 years’ time we will be importing 80 to 90 per cent.

“The decisions we take today will be felt in 15, 20 or 30 years’ time, and I don’t want people looking back and saying, ‘What were those guys doing, when the facts were very clear and very obvious to them?’ ”

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