Tory leadership: Sunak emphasises handouts to tackle cost of living while Truss rejects ‘Gordon Brown economics’
UK households face paying higher energy prices for about a decade until more renewable electricity generation brings costs back to pre-2021 levels, experts said.
Energy prices are predicted to peak up to £5,000 per year for the average household from spring 2023 before falling back, according to independent energy consultancy Auxilione.
But a prediction by consultancy firm Cornwall Insight suggests record-high energy prices “are forecast to remain above pre-2021 average until 2030” until there is more wind and solar power.
It comes amid shadow justice secretary Steve Reed accusing Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak of “fighting like rats in a sack” over the PM job while households are “desperately worried” about paying energy bills this winter.
Meanwhile, PM Boris Johnson has appealed to the energy companies to act “in the national interest” following roundtable talks in Downing Street.
But there has been no new announcement of immediate help for households, and Mr Johnson said that “significant fiscal decisions” would be for his successor to make.
Earlier, Mr Sunak said he would offer more support to the most vulnerable amid the cost-of-living crisis, while Ms Truss pledged tax cuts.
Which energy companies met at Downing Street today?
Energy bosses were hauled in front of ministers today for roundtable talks at Downing Street about the ruinous increases to household gas and electricity bills expected over the coming months.
As well as the chief executive of Ofgem, heads of a number of energy companies also attended.
They were from British Gas, E.on, EDF Energy, Octopus Energy, and ScottishPower.
Also present were representatives from German energy firm RWE, wood pellet and gas producer Drax, renewable energy investor Greencoat Capital, electricity producer Intergen, Germany’s Uniper, National Grid, power generator SSE, Dutch energy firm Vitol, Denmark’s Orsted, and trade body Energy UK.
Badenoch, Braverman, and Tugendhat reveal donors
Earlier, it was reported that Tory leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – as well as a number of former contenders – have yet to disclose the donations to their campaigns.
Three others have revealed the source and amount of funding.
Kemi Badenoch raised £12,500 to support her bid for the Tory leadership, new records show.
Updates to the MPs’ Register of Interests show the former equalities minister received £10,000 from Longrow Capital, owned by tech-focused investor Dave Maclean.
She also received £2,500 from Joanne Black, for whom no further details are available.
Suella Braverman received £10,000 from a company owned by a leading climate sceptic to support her campaign for the Conservative leadership.
Updates to the MPs’ Register of Interests show the Attorney General received the donation from First Corporate Consultants Ltd, which is owned by Bristol Port owner Terence Mordaunt.
Mr Mordaunt, not believed to be related to Ms Braverman’s former leadership rival Penny Mordaunt, chaired the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) between 2019 and 2021.
Records show Ms Braverman also received a £2,000 discount on digital services for her leadership campaign from consultant Ethan Wilkinson.
Tom Tugendhat raised more than £120,000 to fund his unsuccessful bid for the Conservative leadership, the latest register of MPs’ interests shows.
Some £42,673 came from a company called Policy Focus Ltd, founded on June 27, less than two weeks before the leadership campaign began.
Companies House records show Policy Focus is owned by property developers Christian Sweeting and Robert Luck. Mr Sweeting previously donated £10,000 to the Conservative Party in 2018.
Mr Tugendhat also received £50,000 from long-time Tory donor Ian Mukherjee and £25,000 from Beacon Rock Ltd, owned by former Conservative Party Treasurer Sir Michael Davis. Another £6,000 came from business consultancy InvestUK Group.
Downing Street energy talks results in no new plans of support
Boris Johnson said he will continue to pressure the energy sector to “work on ways” to help lower the cost of gas and electricity.
But the first round of discussions at Downing Street today involving the chief executives of energy company E.On and industry regulator Ofgem resulted in no new plans to help households.
The prime minister, who will be replaced by either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak in September, said it will be for his successor to make “significant fiscal decisions”.
Read the full story here by Ashley Cowburn
PM urges energy firms to ease cost-of-living crisis – but no new support announced
‘They agreed to work with us to do more to help the people who most need it,’ Nadhim Zahawi says
Energy prices could ‘stay above pre-2021 average until 2030’
The UK faces higher energy prices for a decade until more renewable electricity generation brings costs back below the levels seen last year, experts have said.
Energy prices are expected to peak as high as £5,000 per year for the average household from spring 2023 before falling back, according to independent energy consultancy Auxilione.
But a prediction by consultancy firm Cornwall Insight suggests said that record-high energy prices “are forecast to remain above pre-2021 average until 2030.”
Read the full story here by Ben Chapman
UK households ‘face decade of higher energy bills’, experts warn
More wind and solar power will reduce costs but not for years, say energy analysts
Plaid Cymru MP readmitted to party after assaulting wife
A Plaid Cymru MP who was cautioned by police after assaulting his wife has had his party whip restored.
Jonathan Edwards will return to representing Carmarthen East and Dinefwr for the party after he had been sitting as an independent MP since his suspension in July 2020.
The latest decision to re-admit him to the Westminster group was taken despite a “significant majority” of the party’s ruling body recommending against it.
Plaid Cymru chairwoman Beca Brown said Mr Edwards’s earlier suspension “reflected the serious nature of [his] police caution and Plaid Cymru’s unequivocal stance that all forms of harassment, abuse and violence are unacceptable”.
Jonathan Edwards
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Ms Brown said the disciplinary panel restored his membership after he expressed “sincere remorse”.
The whip was restored to Mr Edwards after the party received “further procedural advice”, she added.
She said the party will be undertaking an independent review to ensure it becomes “truly free from a culture of misogyny”.
Former party leader Leanne Wood has previously called for Mr Edwards to be banned from Plaid if the party is “serious about stamping out misogyny and domestic abuse”.
Truss and Sunak yet to reveal Tory leadership donors
Liz Truss is yet to reveal who has donated to her leadership campaign while Rishi Sunak has so far only declared the use of some office space.
Updates to the MPs’ Register of Interests published today show Mr Sunak received the use of office space in Westminster worth £3,195 from Bridge Consulting Ltd.
Bridge Consulting was co-founded by former Conservative Party marketing boss Will Harris and housed the former chancellor’s campaign team for two weeks in July.
Ms Truss provided no updates to her register of interests, which covers the period up to 8 August.
Former Conservative leadership hopefuls Penny Mordaunt, Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi are yet to declare any financial support for their campaigns.
MPs have 28 days from accepting a donation to declare it to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
Ofgem and E.ON chief execs arrive at Downing Street
Heads of an energy firm and the industry regulator have arrived at Downing Street for talks during the cost-of-living crisis that’s feared to get worse over the coming months.
E.On’s Michael Lewis and Ofgem’s Jonathan Brearley
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E.On chief executive Michael Lewis and Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley are among those to take part in the discussions, which come after independent energy consultancy Auxilione predicted that the energy price cap could be lifted to an eye-watering £5,000 per year in spring 2023.
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng are expected to press the energy bosses for solutions to the crisis.
Rishi Sunak ‘dug heels in to resist changes to Brexit red tape’
Senior allies of Tory leadership contender Liz Truss have accused her rival Rishi Sunak of having “dug his heels in” when he was chancellor to resist efforts to cut red tape after Brexit.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and chief secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke also claimed Mr Sunak wanted to “normalise” a 70-year high tax burden.
“Rishi has given up,” they wrote in the Telegraph. “He wants people to fear there is no alternative to sliding into recession and that the only option is to stem the bleeding with Labour-lite economic policy.”
They also wrote” “He talks about cutting EU regulations, yet he dug his heels in as chancellor against efforts to do exactly that and realise the benefits of Brexit.”
Read the full story here by Ashley Cowburn
Sunak ‘dug heels in’ to resist changes to Brexit red tape, Truss allies claim
Kwasi Kwarteng and Simon Clarke accuse former chancellor of pushing ‘Labour-lite economic policy’
MPs back Gordon Brown’s ideas for tackling energy bill crisis
Labour MPs are praising Gordon Brown for his proposals on how the government can tackle the cost of living crisis.
The former Labour prime minister has suggested that the energy price cap be scrapped, and for energy firms that cannot lower gas and electricity bills to be temporarily nationalised.
In the Guardian, he wrote what is considered to be thinly-veiled criticism against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and PM Boris Johnson – who have both been on holiday, and the two Tory leadership contenders Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
He wrote: “Time and tide wait for no one. Neither do crises. They don’t take holidays, and don’t politely hang fire – certainly not to suit the convenience of a departing PM and the whims of two potential successors.”
His ideas have been praised by a number of Labour MPs on social media, including Paula Barker, Olivia Blake, Marsha de Cordova, Geraint Davies, Imran Hussain, Barbara Keely, Siobhain McDonagh, Paul Sweeney, and Karl Turner.
Truss and Sunak ‘fighting like rats in a sack’ amid energy crisis
Labour has accused Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak of “fighting like rats in a sack” over who will succeed Boris Johnson as PM while millions of households are worried about how they will pay energy bills this winter.
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said that the “zombie government” is “doing absolutely nothing” to ease the cost-of-living crisis amid the Tory leadership race that’s set to continue into September.
It comes as independent energy consultancy Auxilione said the cap on energy bills could be lifted to an eye-watering £5,000 in spring 2023, a prediction that Ofgem has advised “extreme caution” over.
Mr Reed told Sky News: “Millions of families are desperately worried that they will be going into debt just to pay their energy bills this winter.
“And instead of doing anything to help, this government has Sunak and Truss fighting each other like rats in a sack and the government doing absolutely nothing about coming up with proposals for how they can help people face this crisis – which is looming and terrifying.”
