Boris Johnson is disappointed with Rishi Sunak because of the “resistance” to the new nuclear power plants

Government sources believe it is increasingly likely that Mr Sunak will have to raise the threshold at which national insurance contributions (NICs) are paid. to prevent some of the effects of the increase in the NIC, which will take effect next month.

Ministers are divided over how to respond to the crisis, and this weekend high-ranking Tories openly criticized each other for the government’s approach to the net zero target for 2050.

Lord Goldsmith, Minister for the Environment, ridiculed Oliver Dowden after the Conservative president and minister warned he wanted the public to see “less net nothing dogma” and backed the prime minister’s nuclear ambitions.

Last year, Lord Goldsmith noted that nuclear power is “the most expensive form of energy in the history of energy” – a criticism that Mr Johnson apparently tackled last week. In an article for The Telegraph, the prime minister said: “Now is the time to make a series of big new bets on nuclear energy. The 1997 Labor manifesto says there is no ‘economic reason’ for more nuclear energy – even though nuclear energy is actually safe. clean and reliable.

“It is time to reverse this historic flaw with a strategy involving both small modular reactors as well as larger power plants. The UK was the first to split an atom. The UK had the world’s first civilian nuclear power plant.” It’s time to regain the lead. “

Johnson said on March 7 that he would set an energy supply strategy “in the coming days” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spurred oil and gas prices to multi-year highs.

One government source suggested that Mr Sunak’s resistance to the prime minister’s nuclear plans was an important factor in delaying the publication of the strategy – a claim denied by another source. The strategy is expected to be released later this week or early next week.

One government source said in Mr Sunaka’s defense that Mr Johnson’s plans were “high-level ambitions”, adding: “Obviously you cannot sign the funding policy if you do not yet have details on how it will work.”

Nuclear Energy Bill (financing). it is currently setting up a funding model in parliament to encourage private investment in new plants. Currently, the government has pledged to fund only one new nuclear power plant until the next election. Mr Johnson wants to go much further, as some MEPs are working on the equivalent of eight large power plants by 2050.

All but one of Britain’s existing nuclear reactors are expected to be decommissioned by 2030.

In a speech for the Spring Conservative Conference in Blackpool Johnson said on Saturday that Britain would “make better use of our own naturally occurring hydrocarbons instead of importing the highest dollars from abroad and depositing the money in Putin’s bank account.”