Commons Sense
Already struggling, hard-working families in Slough and across the UK are faced with, frankly, ridiculous and unsustainable increases to their energy bills this winter.
I believe it’s fundamentally wrong to ask people to choose between eating and heating, whether to feed themselves or their children, to live in constant and unbridled financial stress.
The current cost of living crisis represents a serious existential threat to people and society – a threat that must be matched with an equally serious plan to tackle it.
The Labour Party would prioritise both tackling the structural issues in the short and long term – relieving families now and bringing down the cost of energy over time. We wouldn’t let people pay a penny more on their winter fuel bills. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have put forward a fully funded £29billion plan that would: freeze energy bills for all domestic energy customers; increase the windfall tax on the oil and gas producers and close costly loopholes; while making sure that people on prepayment meters no longer pay more compared to those who pay monthly.
Our plans would prevent the energy price cap rising through the winter, paid for by properly taxing oil and gas giants making eye-watering extra billions in profits – saving the typical family £1,000 now, get energy costs under control for the future and also reduce inflation.
The bold and fully funded emergency package we’ve announced would also reduce energy demand, lower bills in the longer term and create new jobs by insulating 19million homes across our country over the next decade through Labour’s Warm Homes Plan.
By taking a holistic approach to this crisis – reducing overall energy demand, improving our home-grown clean energy infrastructure and by ensuring people have the support they need now – we can all get through it.
Neither Tory leadership hopeful has yet to put an adequate deal on the table for the people of Great Britain. We’re not serfs to become permanently indebted to energy companies. People deserve to have a comfortable standard of living, raise their family and live well. What the Tories have offered simply isn’t good enough.
Only Labour can give Britain the fresh start that it needs.