Copeland's Labour MP Jamie Reed has criticised the appointment of prominent anti-Sellafield and anti -nuclear industry campaigner Zac Goldsmith as vice-Chair of Tory Leader David Cameron's environment policy group. The multimillionaire and Conservative Parliamentary Candidate is the son of the late Sir James Goldsmith - founder of the Referendum Party and the man who funded the protestors against the opening of Sellafield's Thorp facility during the public inquiry into the operation of the plant.

Goldsmith has recently told national newspapers that cancer rates around Sellafield are "eleven times higher than the national average."

Jamie Reed said, "I'm saddened and amazed by this appointment. Only weeks after the efforts of myself and others to get nuclear generation back on the policy agenda yielded success with the Prime Minister's announcement of an energy review the new Tory Leader seems determined to wreck any consensus necessary for Britain's future energy needs to be progressed.

"Particularly though I am very concerned by the inaccurate scaremongering relating to cancer rates around Sellafield. Not only have numerous, detailed scientific studies* proved that there is no link between Sellafield and instances of leukaemia and non-hodgkins lymphoma in the area, but these comments demonise West Cumbria in a frankly brutal, aggressive and misleading way. False claims such as this cause widespread pain and also hamper the efforts of community leaders and Government to illustrate the benefits of West Cumbria to potential investors - I'm saddened that the Tory Leadership has absolutely no regard for this whatsoever. This quite clearly signals an alarming policy trend within the Conservative Party and I would expect local conservatives to publicly condemn this.

"On top of this, the effects of such idle and misleading comments have a damaging effect upon the Sellafield workforce, their families and the communities in which they live.

"Any responsible leader of a political party concerned about factual accuracy and the future of the nuclear industry, let alone the reputation of West Cumbria and well being of the Sellafield workforce would publicly condemn these comments.

"Irrespective of what this Tory group believes I will continue working for the re-opening of Thorp and the revival of the British nuclear industry."

Ends

*Most recently the 10th report of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) published in 2005

For further information please contact Carl Carter on 01946 686854