Labour has unveiled a £29bn plan to freeze energy prices before the winter and stop further rises.
Keir Starmer, Labour leader, said the plan, which includes a levy on the profits of oil and gas firms, was “robust and costed”.
The proposal would hold the energy price capo at the current level, which is an average of £1971 per year.
READ MORE: Universal Credit payments 'will be wiped out by rocketing energy bills'
The cap set by Ofgem is due to rise again in October and again in January, with market analysts expecting to go above £4000 within months.
Starmer said closing a “loophole” in the tax on oil and gas firms’ profits, and backdating it to January would bring in £8bn.
Another £14m would come from scrapping the planned £400 payment to every household in October.
And he said lower inflation, which Labour says will come with lower energy bills will mean saving £7bn in government debt repayments.
Starmer said: “We have a choice and this is really the political choice of the day. We either allow oil and gas companies to go on making huge profits which is what's happening at the moment or we do something about it.
"We, the Labour Party, have said we'll do something about it. We will stop those price rises and we will extend the windfall tax on the profits that the oil and gas companies didn't expect to make.
READ MORE:Moderna Covid bivalent vaccine approved for use in UK adults
“So we've got a very strong, robust, costed plan here which will stop those rises this autumn."
He said the plan would save the average household £1000.
The labour leader said, while his plan cancelled the £400 payment other measures announced by the government would be retained.
He added: "We're not going to let the price go up in the first place and so that's how the £400 is catered for.
"Whilst we're cancelling parts of the Government's approach so far, the bit we're not cancelling is the £650 to pensioners and those on Universal Credit, so that is targeted support we would keep."
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel