After months of uncertainty, with ministers hurrying back and forth to China and France, reneging on some promises and signing off on others, Theresa May has finally announced that yes, Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant will be built.

Nuclear power, combined with a stable and well-supported renewables sector where solar, wind and wave power deliver sustainable energy, can play a role in low carbon electricity supply. However the Tories have thrown all logic out of the window with the decision made this week.

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When the then Lib Dem secretary of state, Ed Davey signed off on the original proposals for a nuclear power plant in Hinkley, the plans made economic sense. In Coalition Government, the Lib Dems blocked George Osborne's plan to offer billions of pounds worth of Government subsidies to the project and insisted that there would be no public subsidy.

Now we've witnessed costs spiral out of control, the cost to the consumer rise from £6 billion to £30 billion according to the NAO and the Government offer taxpayers' money on a plate to EDF.

May's Government, after a pause for reflection, have signed off on a behemoth of a project which will set back our renewables sector and take a huge chunk out of our economy, all for the benefit of shackling our energy sector to this power plant. The time it will take to build Hinkley Point C will mean that we will continue to be more dependent on our higher carbon energy sectors than if we had opted to invest in our renewables sector more heavily.

Hinkley Point
File photo: Aerial view of the Hinkley Point site, with views of Hinkley A and Hinkley B in September 2011. The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will go ahead following a "new agreement" with EDF, the Government has confirmed EDF Energy/ PA

There are so many energy alternatives to Hinkley and they are all plummeting in cost at a rate faster than anyone predicted. The Liberal Democrats have been the champions of renewables for decades, long before hugging huskies was fashionable. It would be far better for the future of our environment, our climate and our country if this project was cancelled.

The Tories may be sticking true to their usual form on environmental matters but they will be very embarrassed when the party which prided itself, with the Lib Dems in Coalition, on restoring stability to the economy finally admits that this project, economically, makes no sense. Not satisfied with driving an anti-EU agenda which has led our country into great economic uncertainty, they've now signed off on a project which will see huge amounts of taxpayers' money flowing abroad, making a mockery of the claim that through turning our backs on our European neighbours, we will be taking back control!

Like her predecessor, our new prime minister is already collecting a steady list of poor decisions which will come to define her premiership. Last week it was grammar schools, this week it is nuclear power plants. We should all wait with bated breath for what new wild-eyed and or poorly- researched policy announcement will be made next.

Tom Brake is Lib Dem MP for Carshalton & Wallington, Chief Whip and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson.