WEST Somerset's MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has been appointed joint-chairman of the all-party Nuclear Industries Parliamentary Group.

And he said the group would bring whatever pressure it can to bear on Ministers in order to get construction underway again on Hinkley Point C.

Work on the new power station has all but halted because of questions over financing the project - and there was another setback last week when France's nuclear safety watchdog was told of "multiple" malfunctioning valves in the reactor being built at Flamanville in Normandy, which is the same model proposed for Hinkley Point.

Safety inspectors said the failure of the valves could potentially lead to meltdown.

Hinkley Point will become the biggest civil engineering project in Europe once work gets underway, with a 5,000-strong workforce for its ten years of construction.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said it was vital the government rapidly concluded the £24 billion financing and also put pressure on EdF, who will run the new plant, to obtain safety clearance.

"This is a tremendously important project, not merely to my constituents, not merely to the wider West Country but to the whole of the UK," he said.

"It will deliver safe, clean power for future generations but every day's delay in getting the project restarted gives me greater concerns about our looming energy gap.

"It really is going to be a race against time to get Hinkley C up and running before our growing energy demands exceed what we are generating.

"Nuclear power is a proven technology – the successful history of the Hinkley Point site proves that – and we really must resolve these issues quickly so the project can get back on track."