Jamie Reed

Jamieson (Jamie) Reed MP was appointed MP for the Copeland Constituency in 2005, after the retirement of the vehemently pro-Nuclear Jack Cunningham. Copeland is the local constituency for the controversial Sellafield plant.

It is hardly surprising that Reed is vehemently pro-nuclear too. He is also a local to the area. Born in Whitrehaven, he was educated at Whitehaven School before studying at Manchester Metropolitan University and then Leicester University where he completed an MA in Mass Communications. [1]

Reed then put his spin doctors skills to good use by becoming BNFL's press-officer. During his time ther he defended the company's radiactive discharges into the Sea, and BNFL's "terrifying loopholes in security" at the Sellafield site.

[Nucleonics Week, 2003, Progress in Reducing Discharges under Debate at Ospar Meeting, 26 June, Vol 25, p12]

After his election, the public relations in-house magazinePR Week wrote a story on the Labour selection process to replace Cunningham for the Copeland seat: "Stuart Bruce of Bruce Marshall Associates informs us he was one of four people on an all-PR shortlist alongside Bell Pottinger board director and former special adviser to Cunningham, Tim Walker, and Thomas Docherty, another BNFL PR man. What this can mean for the re-elected Labour government's commitment to pump billions into a raft of new nuclear power stations, we couldn't possibly say". [PR Week (2005) Labour Candidate Emerges And Wins, 20 May, p48]

On election Reed said that one of his major tasks was to fight for a new generation of nuclear plants. [Nuclear News, 2005, A Sellafield Press Officer was Elected Member of Parliament, July, p46.

Copeland's Labour MP, Jamie Reed, has joined the lobbying in Whitehall over what he calls the “compelling case for nuclear�.

He says: “The evidence in support of a UK nuclear renaissance is growing week by week.� [2]