The phoney 'ordinary folk' in Labour's TV broadcast: Millionaire restaurateur and Guardian journalist among interviewees saying they cannot afford fuel bills

Labour broadcast featured interviews with people struggling to pay fuel bills

One of them was Beresford Casey, owner of a posh burger chain

Another was Jack Monroe, a campaigner and journalist

They were supposed to be ordinary people appearing on a Labour political broadcast, venting their fury at energy price hikes.

But closer inspection reveals that, far from being average citizens, the participants actually included a millionaire restaurant owner and a Guardian journalist.

The party broadcast last night featured interviews with people struggling to pay fuel bills.

One of them was Beresford Casey, owner of a posh burger chain, who lives in the plush Primrose Hill area of north London – half a mile from Ed Miliband’s childhood home.

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Jack Monroe, blogger and campaigner, appeared in the Labour party broadcast



And another was Jack Monroe, a campaigner and journalist who has written for the Guardian and the Independent.

Last night a Tory MP slammed Labour for using left-wing activists to masquerade as ‘ordinary people’ for political attack campaigns.

Priti Patel said: ‘Labour’s party political broadcast would be a lot more effective if they used real people rather than their own coterie of left-wing campaigners and champagne socialists.

Beresford Casey in his Shoreditch restuarant Hache

‘Under this Government, unemployment is down and the economy is growing – these are real measures to help with the cost of living, but Labour have opposed them.

‘This is same old Labour – instead of standing up for hardworking people, they’d rather scaremonger.’

Ed Miliband announced at the Labour conference last month that if he wins the next election he will freeze energy bills until 2017.

The Conservatives have derided this as a ‘con’.

Mr Casey met Mr Miliband earlier this month, when the Labour leader visited the Camden branch of his restaurant. The pair discussed the party’s policy on energy costs and business rates, according to local newspaper the Ham & High.

Miss Monroe is a food blogger and freelance journalist.

She writes about her experience of living on benefits after giving up her job in 2011, saying the commuting and childcare costs were unsustainable on her £27,000 salary.

In the broadcast, she says: ‘Hot water and a comfortable living environment are things that you should be providing for your child.

‘You know in your head it’s not normal to put your child in a fleecy babygro and a jumper to go to bed, or to go to bed at 6 or 7 o’clock in the evening because you’ve got nothing else to do, nothing to entertain yourself with and the flat is cold and dark.

‘They’re making huge profits for their shareholders but people are turning off their heating and unscrewing their light bulbs.’

Beresford Casey is co-founder of the Hache Burger Connoisseurs, a chain of hip restaurants in trendy parts of London with prices at the upper end – £10.95 for a ‘Hache scotch beef steak burger topped with the celebrated Reblochon cheese’.



The restaurants also sell champagne for £54.95 a bottle.



MILLIONAIRE BURGER BAR OWNER WITH A HOME IN PRIMROSE HILL

After leaving his job as an art director at an advertising agency, Beresford Casey opened one of London’s most popular gourmet burger restaurants. The 68-year-old, also known as Berry, is the co-founder of the Hache burger chain, which boasts four restaurants in some of the capital’s trendiest areas.

The entrepreneur lives with his wife Susie at a £1.5million terraced home in Primrose Hill, north London, less than a mile from Ed Miliband’s family home.

Their daughter Camilla is responsible for the chain’s PR and marketing, and Susie also helps to run the business.

Mr Casey held a meeting with the Labour leader and other business-owners earlier this month after which Mr Miliband promised to ‘stand up’ for small businesses.

Mr Miliband even pointed out Hache’s Camden branch during a walk around the area, stating that ‘energy costs and business rates are massive, massive issues’ for Mr Casey’s business. The burger boss has previously said that the restaurant’s ‘dining concept’ originates from his ‘love of France’.

In an interview earlier this year, Mr Casey said that he had plans to expand the business, which he said had been ‘privately financed’.

He and his wife opened the restaurant chain’s first branch in 2004. Its four restaurants are located in Chelsea, Camden, Shoreditch and Clapham.

According to Companies House records, Mr Casey lives on Waterside Place in Primrose Hill, where the average property price is more than £1.5million. In the broadcast, he says: ‘You’ve got this industry which is very unprofessional … doing their very best to rip you off.

‘There are about six enormous companies and when ministers talk about competition it’s a bit of a joke really – because it looks very much like a monopoly.’

It also emerged that a mass email sent out by Labour from someone complaining about the impact of bills this week, was written by a council officer who has accused the Conservatives of being like the BNP.



Russ Tennant tweeted in August: ‘Be better if the Conservatives stopped using the BNP’s divisive tactics and language.’

Last night a Labour source defended the inclusion of Miss Monroe, who blogs about cheap meals, saying: ‘Like millions of people around the country struggling to make ends meet, she is showing how to make a little go further during these tough times.’

She insisted she was an ‘ordinary person’ but was also ‘proud to call myself an activist’. Mr Casey said he had ‘no affiliation’ to Labour, adding: I am just an independent business guy.’