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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has admitted that electricity and gas bills could still go up under a flagship energy-price cap proposed by the Conservatives.
The Prime Minister said no government could guarantee bills would not go up, but her party still argued its policy could save 17 million families £100 a year.
It came after Business Secretary Greg Clark acknowledged earlier in the day that the flagship plan to “cap” bills would leave the energy regulator free to let them rise, if international prices went up.
Ms May was challenged on the scheme by a worker at a factory in Leeds she was visiting, who demanded to know whether it would stop prices from rising.
She responded: “I don't think any government can ever promise that no bill is going to go up year on year ... It will be making sure that there are not these sudden and unexpected and significant hikes in prices.”
Ms May dismissed suggestions she was resurrecting an old Labour policy derided as “Marxist” by David Cameron when it was put forward by Ed Miliband in 2015.
Unlike Mr Miliband's freeze, which would stop prices falling, her plan would involve an independent regulator setting maximum prices reflecting market conditions, she said.
Energy bosses warned the Tory price cap could undermine competition, while price comparison site uSwitch.com said it was a “red herring” which would “kill competition, push up energy prices and leave consumers worse off”.
Trade association Energy UK tore into the Prime Minister’s plans, warning it would prevent people saving money by switching provider.
Chief Executive Lawrence Slade said: “There is a lot of talk around it will save consumers £100.
“Well, I can take a consumer onto a price competition website today and I could save them much, much more than that.”
It emerged that the Conservative policy was rejected by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last summer, which warned it would backfire.
A cap on standard variable bills carried “excessive risks of undermining the competitive process, likely resulting in worse outcomes for customers in the long run”, the CMA concluded.
Greenpeace condemned long-running Tory cuts to efforts to make homes energy efficient, a much better way to cut bills than “populist policies” it said.
In the first major policy announcement of the Conservative campaign, the Prime Minister said her government would limit the standard tariffs paid by seven in ten families.
The regulator Ofgem would review the market twice a year and set maximum prices, handing 17 million families on standard tariffs up to £100 a year, according to Tory sources.
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