After more than a week of weather warnings, and freezing temperatures Rutherglen’s MSP has claimed that “Labour’s broken promises” will hit households with an extra £470 on their energy bills.
Clare Haughey made the comments after Ofgem have confirmed that household energy bills will rise again in January.
Last month, changes to the energy price cap had already seen energy bills rise by 10 per cent – adding an extra £149 to the average household bill.
The MSP pointed to Labour’s general election campaign, when Keir Starmer promised a UK Labour Government would “tackle the root causes of the cost-of-living crisis, and help families save up to £300 off their energy bills”.
Ms Haughey accused Labour of “broken promises” on energy bills, and claims the second and most recent energy price cap rise will now result in an average increased cost of £470 per household, since Labour came into power on a promise of a £300 cut to bills.
The Rutherglen MSP also criticised Michael Shanks MP for Rutherglen for saying that Labour made no pledge to reduce bills in a certain timescale
She has raised the issue in the Scottish Parliament, and The First Minister John Swinney agreed that people must be “stunned” that they are seeing a second increase in their bills, having been promised a reduction by Labour – adding that it is “a very serious situation that pensioners in particular are facing”.
A pensioner, who received the Winter Fuel Payment and the £300 Cost of Living Payment last year, will be up to £600 worse off this winter – after the Labour Government abolished both payments for the overwhelming majority of pensioners.
Clare Haughey MSP said: “Residents in Rutherglen and Cambuslang will remember Labour leaflets sailing through their letterboxes this summer, promising a £300 reduction in energy bills.
“But recently their MP, Mr Shanks, sat in a Westminster committee and furiously backpedalled, saying Labour ‘made no pledge’ to reduce bills ‘in 100 days, a year, or two years’.
“Those same residents are now faced with a £470 price rise, never mind any sort of reduction. They will be rightly asking the UK Labour Government if and when this election pledge is ever going to happen, and feeling incredibly let down.
“The UK Government must publish a clear timetable now – or admit if it’s destined to be yet another broken promise from the Labour Party.”
In Labour’s manifesto the party blamed rising energy bills on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Tories’ “chaotic sticking plaster policies”, and the previous government’s ban on onshore wind programmes and failure to build new nuclear power stations.
Michael Shanks MP said: “Only Labour has a credible plan to bring down bills with our clean power by 2030 mission. This will reduce our reliance on volatile fossil fuels and make sure people don’t ever again experience the price spikes we did in recent years.
“Key to that is Great British Energy, the first publicly owned energy company in 70 years, headquartered in Scotland. SNP MPs couldn’t be bothered to turn up and vote for that but now want all the benefits it will bring.
“Instead of investing the proceeds from the renewable energy development in Scotland for the future, the SNP have instead had to use more than half a billion pounds to plug gaps in their day-to-day spending.
“Perhaps the SNP should look a little closer to home before blaming a government that has had five months to turn around 14 years of chaos and neglect”.
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