Rebels demand May honours promised cap on energy bills
THERESA MAY has been hit by a major protest by Conservative MPs after dropping a pledge to cap energy bills,
The Sunday Telegraph can disclose. More than 50 Tory MPs, including 20 former ministers, have signed a letter to the Prime Minister insisting that she honour a promise to protect 17million families against “abusive price increases”.
The backbenchers are joined by a number of Labour and Scottish National Party figures, including several members of the SNP front bench. Sources said one plan under consideration by some of the signatories was to force an amendment into this autumn’s budget legislation, introducing a cap.
The intervention comes after British Gas announced a 12.5 per cent rise in its electricity prices earlier this month, meaning that all of the “Big Six” energy firms have increased bills this year.
In May the Prime Minister said she was “making a promise” that the Conservatives would protect “around 17million families on standard variable tariffs” by introducing a cap on household bills. The Conservative manifesto promised to extend an existing cap for the four million homes with pre-payment meters to “more customers”.
But following the election ministers passed responsibility for implementing the plan to Ofgem, the energy regulator. In July the regulator published watered-down proposals which would protect just two million households.
The letter to Mrs May, orchestrated by John Penrose, a former constitution minister, states that the cap should protect “all of the 17million families currently on expensive Standard Variable Tariff deals, not just the two million vulnerable ones”.
“As you can see from our signatures below, the idea has substantial crossparty support,” the MPs wrote.
Among the signatories are Iain Duncan Smith, Andrew Mitchell and Caroline Spelman, all former ministers.
A total of 53 Conservative MPs have so far signed the letter, which is expected to be delivered to Downing Street when the Commons returns next month.