Keir Starmer: 'The North East will get £1,000 off their bills'

The cost of living crisis facing Britain is now a national emergency.

All across the country, households and families face bills we simply cannot afford.

At a time like this, politicians have to say whose side they are on.

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Is it the millions of hard-working people and businesses across the North East dreading their next energy bill? Or is it the oil and gas giants making record profits from their misery?

Under my leadership, Labour will always put you first.

That’s why under a Labour government, your energy bill wouldn’t go up by a penny this winter.

It’s also why we are very clear about this is being paid for, from a windfall tax on those enormous, unexpected profits. Because unlike the Tories, we won’t be making vast, unfunded promises that would make the current crisis worse.

With everyone feeling the hit, all households across the North East will get £1,000 off their bills because of Labour’s price cap freeze.

And we’ll make sure that targeted extended support for those on universal credit, for pensioners and those with disabilities continues on top of that payment.

That means Labour’s fully-costed plan would get £41 million to homes in Blaydon to ease bills, and £42 million to homes in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, for example.

In fact, across the North East, people will feel the benefit of £1.2 billion from this energy price freeze. To me, this is a simple matter of fairness.

After all, in what world is it right that oil and gas companies are making record profits from the misery of ordinary households and businesses across the country?

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I haven’t heard a decent answer to that question.

Not from the Prime Minister, who is missing in action.

Nor from Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, caught like a pair of rabbits in the headlights.

Not even from the bosses of the oil companies themselves, who have previously said this sort of action wouldn’t deter them from future investment.

Of course, the Tories don’t like it. Because for all their talk, when it comes to the crunch, they always pick vested interests over working people.

It’s a timely reminder that they might be about to get a new leader, but they are still the same bunch who have run our country into the ground over the last 12 years.

The truth is that by refusing to act they are choosing to protect the profits of the oil and gas firms. It’s the same thing they did for five months earlier this year, before they belatedly backed Labour’s plans.

Ensuring energy bills don’t go up will provide welcome relief to people across the country.

But it’s only the first part of our much bigger plans to ensure bills come down in the long term as well.

I’ll have a proper, national mission to insulate millions of homes and reduce the amount of energy we consume and get bills back under control.

And then long term, I’ll ensure our country invests more in sustainable, British energy sources that mean we won’t have to rely on expensive fossil fuels imported from round the world.

It's a plan that would begin to build the stronger, more secure economy we need.

Everywhere you look – from bills to the NHS to crime – the Tories have lost control.

Inevitably, it is working people that are paying the price for their failures.

Labour’s fully-funded, common sense ideas show what could be possible with a government focused on giving Britain the fresh start it deserves.

Sir Keir Starmer is the leader of the Labour party

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