Chinese ‘state-affiliated’ organisations behind cyber-attacks on MPs and Electoral Commission, Dowden says – as it happened

Deputy PM says international partners, including the US, will also be making statements today about similar Chinese cyber-attacks. This live blog is closed

• Chinese hackers targeted UK's Electoral Commission and politicians, say security services

Andrew Bowie, the energy minister, said the government should have revived investment in nuclear energy years ago" in an interview this morning.

While doing an interview round on behalf of the government, Bowie told Times Radio that the government is investing 350m in nuclear energy. But it should have happened sooner, he said.

I make no bones about it. We should have done this years ago. We are running to catch up, but we have just this year delivered our civil nuclear roadmap. We've announced our intention to build a third gigawatt project. We're investing 350m in new nuclear power to ease Vladimir Putin out of the nuclear fuels market. We are absolutely committed to delivering small modular reactors through our competition, which will conclude this year.

But of course, this should have been done years ago, which is why we're having to take the action in the way that we are right now.

We've been very clear that the situation now is that China is behaving in an increasingly assertive way abroad, authoritarian at home and it represents an epoch-defining challenge, and also the greatest state-based threat to our economic security.

So, it's right that we take measures to protect ourselves, which is what we are doing.

When it comes to cyber, we have the National Cyber Security Centre, which is world leading.

Indeed, when I'm out and about across the world, other leaders want to learn and talk to us because they believe that our capabilities in this country are very strong.