Energy bills could still rise under price cap, May admits

THE Liberal Democrats won a single Welsh MP in 2015 having lost a bastion in the Welsh capital to Labour and seen former rural heartlands turn blue.

But the party’s UK leader is refusing to give up on Wales and will campaign in the nation tomorrow.

Tim Farron does not pretend they stand a chance of winning the election – but he is using the contest to audition for the role of leader of the opposition.

Mr Farron argues that even people who want Theresa May back as Prime Minister should consider voting Lib Dem so the UK can have a strong opposition and local MPs who won’t “just tug their forelock to the Conservative whips in Westminster”.

His party had just nine MPs on the day parliament was dissolved but he is in the fight of his life to engineer a comeback. THERESA May has admitted that electricity and gas bills could still go up under an energy price cap scheme proposed by Conservatives.

The price limit – which Tories say could save 17 million families £100 a year – was the flagship policy unveiled by the Prime Minister as she travelled to Yorkshire to rally her party’s General Election candidates.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn promised a “reckoning” with fat-cat bankers and rip-off businesses as he officially launched Labour’s campaign for the June 8 General Election in Manchester.

And Liberal Democrats called for free sanitary products for schoolgirls to end “period poverty”.

Energy bosses warned the Tory price cap could undermine competition, while price comparison site uSwitch.com said it was a “red herring” which would “kill competition, push up energy prices and leave consumers worse off”.

And Mrs May was challenged on the scheme by a worker at a factory in Leeds, who demanded to know whether it would stop prices from rising.

She responded: “I don’t think any government can ever promise that no bill is going to go up year on year ... It will be making sure that there are not these sudden and unexpected and significant hikes in prices.”

Mrs May dismissed suggestions that she was resurrecting an old Labour policy derided as “Marxist” by David Cameron when it was put forward by Ed Miliband in 2015.

Unlike Mr Miliband’s freeze, which would stop prices falling, her plan would involve an independent regulator setting maximum prices reflecting market conditions, she said.

Labour said it was unclear what Mrs May was promising. “A cap suggests a maximum amount that can be charged, not a promise that bills won’t go up year-on-year,” said shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Mr Corbyn promised to help ordinary people “get our wealth back” by breaking a “rigged system” which favoured the rich and powerful.

And he warned that wealthy elites were planning to “hijack” Brexit to ensure they paid less tax and took an even greater share of the country’s income.

Addressing activists before boarding his election battle bus in Manchester, Mr Corbyn sought to draw a line under complaints that his party’s position on Brexit has been confused.

The question of whether the UK would leave the EU was “settled” by last year’s referendum and the issue was now Labour’s aim to deliver a “jobs-first Brexit” featuring “a genuinely fairer society, protecting human rights, and an upgraded economy”, he said.

But Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “Corbyn’s claim that Brexit is ‘settled’ is further proof of his inability to stand up to the Tories on the most important issue facing our country.”

Mr Farron joined rescue workers on board a hovercraft in Burnham-onSea, Somerset, as he launched his party’s drive for votes in a crucial area with several Lib Dem target seats.

Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn played down suggestions that he is determined to remain Labour leader even if he loses the election.

In an interview by BuzzFeed News he appeared to suggest he would carry on regardless of the result, telling the website: “I was elected leader of this party and I’ll stay leader of this party.”

But pressed on the issue by the BBC, Mr Corbyn insisted: “I told them I would carry on as leader because we’ll have won the election by then.”

Speaking to reporters after Labour’s official General Election campaign launch in Manchester, Mr Corbyn refused to be drawn on his future as leader.

Asked if he would stand down if defeated in the June 8 poll, Mr Corbyn only said: “We’re fighting to win the election.”