BRIDGWATER MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has vowed to fight any challenges to the Hinkley C project as a legal challenge is launched in Europe.

He dismissed an objection from the Austrian government and says it will definitely go ahead.

But campaigners fighting the Hinkley C project are adamant that Austria’s challenge is the final ‘nail in the coffin’ for the controversial project.

The project has already seen a number of hold-ups and the Austrian government has filed a legal challenge against the European Commission’s decision to give the nuclear power project the green light.

The power station is expected to provide seven per cent of the UK’s electricity by 2023.

The case concerns the British government’s guarantee of a 35-year fixed electricity rate to French energy group EDF, arguing that the UK’s loan guarantees over the period constitutes illegal state aid.

The Austrian deputy chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner has said that “subsidising a technology which has been around for several decades, and is unprofitable once you take into account all the costs, goes against the basic logic of European law regarding state aid.”

EDF has said that the Hinkley Point C agreements are durable because they are “fair and balanced” and that they were approved by the European Commission “following a robust and lengthy investigation.”

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said it was: “confident the European Commission’s State aid decision on Hinkley Point C is legally robust”.

It added that the department had no reason to believe that Austria would submit a challenge of any merit.

Mr Liddell-Grainger has recently been appointed chairman of the all-party group on civil nuclear power and recently attended the Nuclear Industry Association conference, he said that the potential Austrian challenge to the project was not mentioned at either event.

He said: “It won’t stop Hinkley. It won’t stop anything we are doing – our proposals are very robust.”

He said there was “absolutely no doubt” they would beat any challenge.

He added: “It will be built, definitely. It’s happening.”

The challenge was not unexpected, Mr Liddle-Grainger said, adding that it would not hold up the project. The benefits that had already been felt included inward investment being brought to the area and a training programme for apprentices, he added.

Campaign group Stop Hinkley has welcomed the potential challenge.

Allan Jeffrey from the group said that for a wide variety of reasons he believed it would never be built. He said the group would like to see the government stop subsidising old industries and focus on helping renewable industries to grow.