Why the cost of living crisis is now a national emergency - Rachel Reeves

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.

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

I’ll never forget the woman I spoke to in my constituency in Leeds West earlier this year, who had freezing hands and purple fingers because her pension wasn’t enough to pay for the heating.

So many people are having to make impossible choices. From deciding whether to skip meals to cutting back further than they already have as they worry about the winter they have ahead.

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 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 Yorkshire 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 £44m to homes in Pudsey to ease bills, and £50m to homes in Dewsbury, for example.In fact, across Yorkshire people will feel the benefit of £2.1 billion from this energy price freeze.

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?

None of us have 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.

It was their failures on energy security that have left us uniquely exposed to the global energy crisis – from cutting gas storage, failing to insulate homes or invest in homegrown renewables, and regulating the market poorly.

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.

As Keir Starmer announced a year ago, Labour will have a proper, national mission to insulate millions of homes and reduce the amount of energy we consume and get bills back under control.

With our plan, we’ll insulate two million homes a year across our country – getting your energy bills down by £1,000 not just for one year – but every year in the future. And it won’t just bring costs down. As the CBI have said, a programme like this will invest in the jobs we need – from green tech to builders, pipe fitters, engineers and manufacturers – our plan will get our economy growing. And it’ll get us on the path to net zero, saving carbon emissions. It’s a win-win.

Instead of sticking plasters, these are the long term plans we need for our energy security, but for our economic security too.

They will help 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.

Rachel Reeves is the Shadow Chancellor and MP for Leeds West.