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The Prime Minister said years of failure to invest in the green energy source under the New Labour government means bill payers are now £3 billion a year worse off.

He hopes the cash announced yesterday will help secure the private investment needed to get an agreement on the new power station over the line in weeks.

In his last major policy speech as PM, he said: “We need to pull our national finger out and get on with Sizewell C.

“That’s why we’re putting £700 million into the deal, just part of the £1.7 billion of Government funding available for developing a large-scale nuclear project to final investment stage in this Parliament.

“In the course of the next few weeks I am absolutely confident that it will get over the line.”

Mr Johnson said it would be “madness” not to go ahead with the £20 billion project, which would “fix the energy needs, not just of this generation but of the next”.

“I say to you, with the prophetic candour and clarity of one who is about to hand over the torch of office, I say go nuclear and go large and go with Sizewell C,” he added.

In a speech at Sizewell B, he said there had been a “paralysis over British nuclear energy”, blaming successive governments for failing to invest in new reactors.

“Yes, nuclear always looks – when you begin – it always looks relatively expensive to build and to run,” he said.

“But look at what’s happening today, look at the results of Putin’s war. It is certainly cheap by comparison with hydrocarbons today.”

He said that if the under-construction Hinkley Point C in Somerset was operating now “it would be cutting our national fuel bills by £3 billion”.

Mr Johnson criticised Labour’s Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for failing to get new nuclear power stations built.

He said: “For 13 years the previous Labour Government did absolutely nothing to develop this country’s nuclear industry. They said it didn’t make economic sense. Thanks a bunch Tony. Thanks a bunch Gordon.”

Mr Johnson also took a swipe at former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg for been a barrier to action during the coalition government.

“They’re not the only culprits because in the run up to the 2010 election, as you’ll have seen, a famous video on YouTube now,  Nick Clegg - then the leader of the liberal democrats, now some kind of tech lobbyist in California I understand - said that the UK shouldn’t build more nuclear power stations like Sizewell C.

“He didn’t say it was unsafe. He didn’t have what he called a "theological objection". He said that the problem was that it wouldn’t even be completed until 2021 or 2022. Gee thanks Nick.”

The Prime Minister said the spike in gas prices driven by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine showed why new nuclear generation capacity was needed in the UK.

The new reactor at the Sizewell site in Suffolk is expected to be built in partnership with energy firm EDF and could power the equivalent of about six million homes.

Mr Johnson also highlighted the importance of offshore wind saying the Government’s actions meant roughly half the electricity consumption of the country from 2030.

“I tell everybody who thinks "hydrocarbons are the only answer, we should get fracking" and all that, offshore wind is now the cheapest form of electricity in this country. Offshore wind is nine times cheaper than gas.”

Mr Johnson said he is not  “morally” opposed to fracking, but said he is “dubious” it will prove to be a “panacea”.

“On fracking, you know, I am not intellectually, morally opposed to this at all. I think that if we could, you know, frack effectively and cheaply in this country, that would be a positive and beneficial thing.

“I have to say, I am just slightly dubious it will prove to be a panacea.

“I would much rather that we focused on the things where we are brilliant and where the environmental damage is really minimal, like offshore wind.

The PM said there needs to be a diversified energy policy and local communities should have a say on fracking.

But he added: “We shouldn’t put all our eggs in that particular basket.”

Mr Johnson will address the nation early on Tuesday morning before heading to Balmoral to formally announce his resignation to the Queen.

At the press conference yesterday he said “only time will tell” what kind of ex-prime minister he will be.

But Mr Johnson insisted he will give his “full and unqualified support” to his successor.

He said: “I think only time will tell is my answer on that one. But my intention and what I certainly will do is give my full and unqualified support to whoever takes over from me. Otherwise, really to get on with life.”

Boris Johnson’s final speech as Prime Minister was much more upbeat and far less embarrassing than that made by his tearful predecessor.

Speaking in Downing Street in July 2019, Theresa May broke down in a flood of sobs and self-pity. In contrast, Johnson exuded verve and vision as he made his farewell address from the Sizewell B nuclear plant in Suffolk.

The venue was well-chosen, for the last major act of his premiership was to announce a dramatic leap forward in the nuclear programme.

As he revealed with his trademark ebullience, not only is the Government to take a major stake in the development of a new station at Sizewell, with sufficient capacity to power a fifth of homes, but also this step is part of a bold initiative that will see eight new reactors built at a rate of one per year.

The target is ambitious, he admitted, but could be met if we “pull our national finger out”.

The speech perfectly embodied the unorthodox but compelling spirit of Boris. There was the usual optimistic faith in Britain as he dubbed his plan “our Great British nuclear campaign”.

There was the eccentricity as he recalled how one of his favourite books in his childhood had been the 1972 Ladybird book of nuclear power, a volume which appears to have sparked his fascination with big engineering and infrastructure projects.

And there was a bit of his habitual knockabout partisanship as he laid into Tony Blair and Nick Clegg for their failure over the last two decades to harness nuclear technology. Where Britain once led the world in this field, he complained, there had recently been “zilch” investment because of the “myopia” and “short-termism” of politicians.

“Thanks a bunch, Tony,” he said, though he might have used the same language about his own Tory governments, which have been equally complicit in neglect until now. It was appropriate that Boris should conclude on energy, which represents by far the biggest crisis facing us.

But he also touched yesterday on several of his administration’s clear achievements, including global leadership on Ukraine, the delivery of Brexit, the oversight of the world-beating Covid vaccine programme and the spread of fast broadband. “This Government has not shirked the big decisions,” he declared with an air of defiance.

Idealistic and imaginative, the speech yesterday represented the best of Boris. He left the stage with a sense that he could have been a great Prime Minister, if only he had focused on his task and not been so distracted by trivialities.

When Theresa May went, the Tory party breathed a collective sigh of relief.

But this week Johnson’s departure has prompted a more reflective mood about unfulfilled promise.

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