Prime Minister Theresa May has dismissed the uncertainty around the £15 billion Moorside nuclear power station development as a “commercial issue”.

In an interview with ITV Border at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Mrs May repeatedly said the future of the project was between the companies involved in the ownership of NuGen, the developer behind the economy-boosting project.

Mrs May said the Government was “monitoring” the situation and repeatedly confirmed its support for the nuclear sector.

The future of Moorside is hanging in the balance as current owners Toshiba look to off-load NuGen to a new investor by the end of the financial year. Korean state-owned utility Kepco and Canadian-headquartered asset management company Brookfield are in the frame to take ownership of the company.

When asked if she was confident Moorside would be built, Mrs May said: “The issue of Moorside is a matter for commercial discussion between the companies involved. We’ve been monitoring this very closely. We are looking to see the opportunity to provide help where that is possible from Government.

“We want to see nuclear power as part of our energy sector in the future. Obviously, we’ve seen other nuclear projects going ahead. But the issue with Moorside, if course, is a debate – a commercial debate – between companies.”

Mrs May was pointedly asked what she had personally done to get Moorside “back on track” after pledging her support for the nuclear industry while campaigning for Trudy Harrison for the Copeland seat.

“Nuclear does matter to us,” she said, stressing that the Nuclear Sector Deal was one example of the support being given to the industry.

“And that’s why we’ve been acting. It is under my premiership that we took the decision on Hinkley Point, obviously down in the South West.

“We’ve also entered in to discussions with Hitachi about the Wylfa site in north Wales, and in terms of Moorside – there is a commercial issue there between companies. Government has been monitoring that. We have been talking to those involved.”

Mrs May also took a swipe at previous Labour Government’s for not supporting new nuclear, and claimed her Government was “catching up” as a result.

The interview comes a week after further discussions between NuGen and the Government took place. Ministers are weighing up whether to employ a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for the project, which allows government regulators to ensure stable returns and finance through Government support.

The introduction of the RAB model as a way of financing Moorside has been blamed for delaying a deal between Toshiba and Kepco, who had been “preferred bidder” to buy NuGen until they were stripped of the status in August.

Talks are continuing between the two, while discussions between Toshiba and Brookfield are understood to be accelerating. Brookfield bought Westinghouse from Toshiba in a $4.6bn deal in January this year.

Westinghouse had been poised to supply three of its AP1000 reactors at Moorside when it was under the ownership of Toshiba, but the plans quickly unravelled after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA in early 2017 having overpaid by several billion dollars for another nuclear construction and services business.

The move led NuGen’s minority shareholder Engine to pull out of the consortium and Toshiba, as sole owner, at a time when its board decided to divest from nuclear.

Look out for the October edition of in-Cumbria magazine, which features a special report on Moorside.