A record number of electricity customers switched away from the Big Six companies to independent suppliers in September

A poorly designed energy price cap could “drive up prices or drive out competition”, the Labour MP leading scrutiny of the proposal has warned.

Rachel Reeves, who chairs the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee, told The Times that she supported a cap to tackle the “failure” of the energy market but said a series of risks would need to be addressed.

“I do think something needs to be done,” she said. “But what is really important as well is that a price cap doesn’t result in higher prices overall, as energy companies converge — as we’ve seen, for example, with university tuition fees — around one price point.”

The government has published a draft bill to introduce a regulated cap on all standard