Another day, another broken promise from this hapless Government.
Well, not quite yet perhaps, but Ed Miliband’s pledge to bring down household energy bills is as good as dead after it was rubbished by some of the industry’s most influential figures in devastating fashion. [emphasis, links added]
It seems set to join a growing list of unfulfilled, exaggerated, and unachievable manifesto promises made by Labour in its desperate bid for power, whether that be a commitment to smash the boat gangs, targets on NHS waiting lists, or welfare reform.
The party made scores of manifesto pledges, too many for the vast majority of voters to be able to keep count.
But for a whole host of reasons, everyone remembers Miliband’s guarantee to reduce energy bills by £300 by 2030, not least because it was one of Labour’s flagship promises.
A typical family forked out a wallet-busting £1,740 to heat and light their home last year, unsurprisingly making Labour’s promised £300 saving extremely meaningful for millions.
Indeed, for the many who have been struggling to pay their bills – two fifths of UK households fall into that category, according to charities – it’s the sort of incentive that wins votes.
However, Miliband’s promise of lower energy costs has been on the rocks for months as it becomes ever more apparent that far from being the solution to eye-watering bills, his green energy scramble is actually part of the problem.
Much to his embarrassment, Miliband’s pledge was given a thorough roasting in Parliament on Wednesday at the hands of folk who understand how the energy market works better than anyone.
As a slew of energy bosses queued to warn of higher bills, the hearing highlighted the absurdity of Labour’s vow to magically make bills more affordable by building yet more wind turbines.
The revelations from the stinging energy select committee session leave Miliband’s credibility in tatters – if it wasn’t already, of course.
Among the many marmalade-droppers to come out of the session was that from Rachel Fletcher, the director for regulation at Octopus Energy.
She said that, contrary to Miliband’s rash talk of lower bills, households are likely to be spending considerably more on energy by the end of the decade.
This isn’t because of those much-maligned fossil fuels that Labour is attempting to eradicate at light speed either, but because of a slew of green policy costs that help to bankroll the Energy Secretary’s obsession with yet more renewables that the grid can’t cope with.
Almost comically, it turns out Miliband was right to be banding around a figure of £300, just not in the way he anticipated. Instead, that’s how much Octopus calculates will be added to bills in the coming years as a result of net zero-related charges, including green levies.
In fact, green levies are becoming so exorbitant that they threaten to push household bills higher, even if gas and power prices fall dramatically, MPs were warned.
This means that even if the wholesale cost of electricity is halved, bills would still spike by around £150 overall, Fletcher claimed.
At which point, Miliband should have gone for a lie down in a field full of solar panels – at least, until the Government can find someone less likely to lead this country down the path to financial ruin.
Instead, the testimony was greeted by Miliband’s department with the sort of response that sounded like it came from a parallel universe or compiled by ChatGPT.
Dismissing the claims as nothing more than “speculation,” – which they clearly weren’t – a spokesman trotted out the usual unfounded cut-and-paste propaganda that we are used to hearing by now:
“The only way to bring down energy bills for good is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, which will get the UK off the roller-coaster of fossil fuel prices and onto clean, home-grown power that we control.”
It’s a stance that treats voters with contempt.
Yes, an energy industry built on fossil fuels is intrinsically wired to display some level of resistance to a green revolution that requires an entirely new system to be constructed.
But to dismiss these concerns as nothing more than pure guesswork is plain wrong.
Top photo: Ed Miliband speaks at the United Nations during Climate Week NYC. Picture by Maximilian Steyger / DESNZ
Read rest at The Telegraph
