Theresa May should give Labour a round of applause for highlighting the scandal of rip-off gas and electricity bills, the former shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint has said after senior Conservatives confirmed their manifesto will include an energy price cap.

Capping utility bills was a key policy in Labour’s 2015 general election manifesto, but was rubbished by David Cameron as evidence that Ed Miliband wanted to live in a “Marxist universe”.

But the work and pensions secretary, Damian Green, confirmed on Sunday that the Conservatives would allow the market regulator, Ofgem, to impose a price ceiling for customers on standard variable tariffs. He said the policy should save families about £100 a year.

“There will be a lot about energy policy in the manifesto, obviously there will be more details then, but absolutely I think that the people feel that some of the big energy companies have taken advantage of them with the tariffs they have got,” he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday.

Flint, who was Labour’s shadow energy secretary in 2015, said: “we have had seven years of Tories dithering about taking these energy companies to task on their overcharging.

“They well knew, and Labour made it very clear, that they were being overcharged, and the fact that they’re now going to have this policy – they should be giving a round of applause to the Labour party. If there was any justice, we should be getting the credit for this policy.”

Miliband tweeted: “Where were these people for the last four years since I proposed cap? Defending a broken energy marketed that ripped people off.”



Where were these people for last 4 years since I proposed cap?Defending a broken energy market that ripped people off.Let's see small print. https://t.co/iSBUc1Mob1 — Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) April 23, 2017

In 2013, after Labour announced the price freeze, Cameron accused Miliband of wanting to “live in some sort of Marxist universe in which it is possible to control all these things,” and said he “needs a basic lesson in economics”.

Last June, the Competition and Markets Authority found the difference between the standard variable tariffs and the cheapest deals was as much as £320 a year.



May made clear in her party conference speech last autumn that she was prepared to take a more interventionist approach to the economy, distancing herself from the laissez-faire approach of her predecessor.

A government source said the energy price freeze, which had been trailed for some weeks, was a good example of “Mayism”. The Conservatives hope to make big inroads into traditional Labour territory in June’s election, emboldened by winning the recent byelection in Copeland, in Cumbria.

Green said the energy price cap was partly a response to some of the forces that drove last year’s Brexit vote. “There are groups in society in certain areas of the country and in certain parts of society that feel that life has become unfair, that even if they are working hard and doing the best for their families that somehow they are getting a bad deal and that does involve changing things like the energy market,” he said.

Labour’s campaigns and elections chairman, Andrew Gwynne, said the Tories’ promises on energy bills should be taken with a huge pinch of salt. “The Tories don’t stand for working people. Their record is one of failure and broken promises, letting ordinary people down at every turn,” he said.

The energy industry has reacted angrily to the plans, saying they could stifle competition. Lawrence Slade, the chief executive of the industry body Energy UK, said the move would be “giving up on competition”.

“Intervention on this scale will additionally create huge uncertainty around government intentions, potentially putting at risk the billions in investment and jobs needed to renew our energy system,” he said.

Richard Neudegg, the head of regulation at the price comparison site uSwitch.com, said the policy could do more harm than good by dissuading consumers from seeking out cheaper deals. “It would create a false sense of security for consumers on poor value standard variable tariffs, reducing the chance of them seeking a cheaper deal.”