THE official launch of the privatisation process of nuclear group, British Energy, sparked a political storm yesterday with the Labour Party hinting it would attempt to make life harder for the company in the private sector. The terms of the sell off expected to generate over £2 billion sterling for the British government were condemned as an "extraordinarily bad deal for the taxpayer" by the Shadow energy spokesman, Mr John Battle.

The pathfinder prospectus which gives detailed information about the financial state of the company, revealed that the government is writing off almost £700 million of group debt.