What’s behind Keir Starmer’s decision to back nuclear power?

A man walking through sand dunes near the Sizewell B nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast. Photograph: Michael Brooks/Alamy

Keir Starmer has committed the UK to its first significant stake in a new nuclear power plant since the 1980s.

The decision to invest almost £18bn of taxpayer money into the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk was welcomed by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, as the beginning of a “golden age” of nuclear investment that would be critical to the government’s net zero goals.