Consultation for nuclear power 'biased'

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Members of the public were given loaded presentations which could have given a falsely high level of support for planned new nuclear generators.

The work was carried out by the market research firm founded by Mr Brown's personal pollster, Deborah Mattinson, a long-standing Labour Party adviser.

It is the second time the process has run into difficulties. In 2006, a High Court ruling found the Government's process had been unlawful as it had failed to engage in the fullest consultation. In part of the latest, the public were given slide shows and information packs. But Greenpeace protested the packs were partly written by the Government and that questions to stimulate debate were loaded.

It was backed by the industry watchdog, the Market Research Standards Board, which said the exercise broke part of its code calling for "reasonable steps to ensure that respondents are not led towards a particular answer". It said in a ruling: "There were a number of examples where ... objectively viewed, information was inaccurately or misleadingly presented, or was imbalanced." The Government insisted the consultation was valid as the section criticised amounted to a single day's event.