UNIONS have demanded clarity and investment from the Government over Cumbria's planned nuclear new build.

Unite and the GMB have both issued the call after French company ENGIE announced it was selling its 40 per cent stake in NuGen - the firm with plans to build a new power plant at Moorside, near Sellafield - to Toshiba, leaving the financially troubled Japanese giant as the sole owner of the firm.

Ir came after Toshiba's nuclear division, Westinghouse Electric, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the USA last week.

Toshiba has repeated its commitment to sell shares in NuGen, with Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) rumoured to be a potential buyer.

Chris Jukes, GMB senior organiser, said: “This is hugely concerning. We need urgent clarity from the Government, clarity from NuGen and some firm announcements about the plant’s future.

“In post-Brexit Britain we have the perfect opportunity to provide our own energy supply. But we have one French company exiting the project and one in the Far East having financial problems.

“It makes you wonder if this project is going to go ahead. It has to. There’s too much at stake."

Kevin Coyne, Unite's national officer for energy, said: “Unite will be writing to business secretary Greg Clark as a matter of urgency asking for clarity on the UK’s energy policy, with particular reference to Moorside and the need for substantial public investment to ensure that the plant proceeds on schedule.

“Moorside is expected to generate 20,000 highly skilled jobs during its construction and when it is up-and-running – and will be a major economic accelerator for the north west.

"We need to nurture and protect these skilled jobs, if the Northern Powerhouse is to become a reality in the next decade.

“The case for the government to underpin, with public investment, the financial future of the Moorside project is becoming more unanswerable by the day. The private sector has not made a great success of Moorside to date.”

Business Secretary Greg Clark has visited South Korea this week and met with representatives from Kepco.

He was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying: "It would be a positive partnership that we feel the UK and Korea can have in nuclear, but on the particular project of Moorside, that is for the developers to make a proposal."

Kepco has said it will comment after it has investigated any investment.

Toshiba is also said to be delaying the publication of its annual results - originally due in February put put back to March and then again to this month - for a third time.