Energy Price Freeze

Debate between Jim Cunningham and John Robertson

Wednesday 2nd April 2014 Commons Chamber

[John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab)]

I find the Secretary of State’s rather patronising attitude towards my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) somewhat distasteful. [Interruption.] I know he is not listening, but it will be in Hansard. He can read about it later. If he wants to conduct his politics in that manner, may I suggest he goes out in the street to do so? Or he should try to conduct himself in a manner befitting of the House.

Let me explain something to the Secretary of State. He obviously does not understand what the word “freeze” means. It means that something is stopped. It is solid and it stays where it is. He seems to have missed that. I noticed that he said he had challenged the big six. I would be interested to know when and what he did to make them do anything, other than be very nice to them and help them to increase their prices, as they have done. The Energy and Climate Change Committee has done more to attack the big six and make them toe the line than his Government have done.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point in asking what the Secretary of State has done to challenge the big six. The big six actually bought off the Secretary of State by proposing a £50 reduction on people’s bills, amounting to 97p a week. They were laughing at him.

[John Robertson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that; he is of course right.

Let us face it: we are where we are. It does not really matter what the Con-Dem Government have done in the past four years, or what the last Labour Government did in the previous 13 years. The problem is what is happening now. Fuel poverty is a bigger problem today than it ever was. We could say that that is a result of bad government and that it is this Government’s fault because they have been in power for four years and they should have done something. Well, they did do something. The Secretary of State talked about getting reports and asking for suggestions, and he has done that. His predecessor also did it, resulting in the Hills report.

The Hills report stated that nearly 2.4 million people were still in fuel poverty, and the gap between their bills and what they could afford was getting wider. It also found that about 3,000 people could be expected to die over the course of a winter as a result of Government policy. That was not necessarily all to do with energy, however; it referred to Government policy overall, and it applied to all Governments. This was a good report, and it was commissioned by a Liberal Secretary of State. But what have the Government done since then? How many lives have been saved since the Hills report? What action have they taken to tackle fuel poverty?

The answer, Secretary of State, is that you have done absolutely nothing. Sadly, more people are dying now than when the Hills report first came out. An energy freeze might not be the answer to everything, but if you are happy with the way Ofgem is running things, with the way the energy market is conducting itself and with the present state of affairs, then do as you are doing now: do absolutely nothing—

Taxation (Living Wage)

Debate between Jim Cunningham and John Robertson

Tuesday 22nd January 2013 Westminster Hall

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

I do not have any difficulty with the hon. Gentleman’s proposal that there should be a 10p tax rate; in fact, it was a Labour Government who actually introduced that rate. Regarding a living wage, which the hon. Gentleman alluded to, I understand that there are no proposals—certainly, they would not be put forward by Labour—to legislate for a living wage. It is a voluntary thing, and it is down to employers, in fact, to decide whether to pay it.

The hon. Gentleman also referred to the minimum wage. I can certainly remember in my constituency many years ago that under the previous Conservative Government there was—what was it called? I think that it was called a “family supplement”, or something, for people on low wages. On one occasion, which really led Labour to legislate for a minimum wage—

[John Robertson (in the Chair)]

Order. Will the hon. Gentleman finish his intervention?

[Mr Cunningham]

I will do in a minute. The fact was that in my constituency we had people on £1 an hour. As I say, I have no difficulties with the hon. Gentleman’s proposal, but whatever Government are in power, at the end of the day, the big threat is from the Exchequer. It is the Exchequer that will probably try to torpedo his proposal.

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Halfon]

I give way again to the hon. Gentleman.

[John Robertson (in the Chair)]

I hope that the intervention will be shorter this time.

[Mr Cunningham]

Frankly, if it is voluntary, then it is not forced on small employers. It is the big employers who can pay it.