Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney, speaking after the publication of the UK Energy Bill, said the new plants would hit consumers in the pocket.

“Scots now face the prospect of increased electricity prices to fund the decommissioning of English nuclear power stations,” he said. “Charges on suppliers to pay for future decommissioning will be passed on to consumers - Scotland will pay for this folly, despite our clear position on resisting new nuclear power.”

The Greens said Scots would have to fund the “vast and irresponsible” subsidies planned in Whitehall, and paying out again through increased electricity bills.

Patrick Harvie MSP accused the UK government of “vampire economics”, using infusions of taxpayers' money to resuscitate the nuclear industry.

“Labour have decided that we should pay the industry's decommissioning costs, plus the costs of setting up waste storage facilities, and, staggeringly, an extra fee per unit of electricity we use,” he said. “All this on top of the £70bn of waste we have already been left to deal with from existing plants.”
 

However, the Confederation of British Industry Scotland said Scottish Government had been wrong to rule out the use of new local carbon nuclear energy in the future.

“The devolved administration should enter into a proper dialogue with business and industry in Scotland on how our future energy needs will be met securely and economically, rather than what appears to be an out of hand dismissal of what is currently around a third of existing generating capacity north of the border,” said CBI director Iain McMillan.