Liz Truss is accused of “lunacy” after she ruled out a public information campaign to get Brits to save energy this winter.
Her Climate Minister today confirmed “we’re not sending that out as a message” - despite reports it would have cost just £15m.
That is 0.02% of the £60bn cost to taxpayers of subsidising bills for six months - which will be brought down if Brits all use less power.
According to The Times, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg worked up plans for a PR blitz but the PM was opposed on ideological grounds.
Shadow Levelling-Up Minister Matthew Pennycook said it would have cut the risk of blackouts and the PM’s stance was “absolute lunacy”.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “ Liz Truss is ideologically opposed to the public interest.”
Tory former pensions minister Guy Opperman hit out, saying he was “fully behind” a campaign to urge people to save energy.
The MP said: “government must act”, adding: “This is not Nanny state.
“It is preserving supply, saving money for everyone, and encouraging localism.”
Tory MP Simon Hoare retweeted a post saying: “We are using vast amounts of taxpayers’ money to pay for energy bills this winter.
“But the argument for not launching a public energy saving campaign is because it is too interventionist?”
It’s understood work on the PR blitz began over summer and continued when Jacob Rees-Mogg was made Business Secretary.
Mr Rees-Mogg then offered the £15m plan to No10 but it was rejected.
It comes as households face 1970s-style power cuts of three hours a night due to a potential shortage of gas from abroad caused by Russia ’s war with Ukraine.
Families will be offered money to not run home appliances when demand is highest in a bid to avert a crisis.
Yesterday the National Grid raised the prospect of blackouts, most likely between 4pm and 7pm, if there is not enough gas to keep going.
The proposal to urge people to save energy was seen as "light touch" amid warnings of blackouts.
It would have advised Brits to lower the temperature of boilers, turn off radiators in empty rooms and turn off the heating when they go out to help them save up to £300.
The Times quoted a government source describing the campaign as a "no brainer" and said No10 had made a "stupid decision”.
Climate minister Graham Stuart insisted the government was not asking people to use less energy.
"We plan for all eventualities and the public should be confident that we have a very strong and very diverse supply,” he told Sky News.
Tory health minister Maria Caulfield backed the PM, writing: “I’m all for an energy saving campaign this winter.
“But do we need to spend £15 million to do that. The PM is right to question if this is the best use of tax payers money.”
A government spokesman said: “Ministers are not launching a public information campaign and any claim otherwise is untrue."
But the government has not denied that draft plans were drawn up.
Mr Stuart said: “We’re in an iterative process of policy development and ideas and we come to a conclusion.
“The idea there was some highly developed campaign which we were… passionately devoted to and No10 nixed it, I don’t recognise that.”
Planned blackouts hit the UK during the 1970s in response to the miners' strikes and the oil crisis.
There have also been major unplanned outages during storms, including in 1987 when more than 1.5 million people were left in the dark.
But the lights will stay on this winter unless the gas-fired power plants that produced 43% of Britain's electricity over the last year cannot get enough gas to continue operating.
It is the most dire of three possible scenarios that the ESO laid out on Thursday for how Britain's electricity grid might cope with the worst global energy crisis for decades.
In the other two scenarios, the operator hopes that by paying people to charge their electric cars at off-peak times, and firing up back-up coal plants, it can offset the risk of blackouts.
Last night Liz Truss was unable to rule out blackouts this winter.
She told reporters during a visit to the Czech Republic: "What we're clear about is that we do have a good supply of energy in the UK, we're in a much better position than many other countries.
“But of course there's always more we can do, and that's why I'm here working with our partners, making sure we do have a secure energy supply into the future."
Mr Stuart today added the government “plan for all eventualities” and “this winter has higher risks than we’ve seen in previous winters”.
A Government spokesman said: "The UK has a secure and diverse energy system.
"We have plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia's illegal war in Ukraine.
"To strengthen this position further, we have put plans in place to secure supply and National Grid, working alongside energy suppliers and Ofgem, will launch a voluntary service to reward users who reduce demand at peak times.
"We will continue to work internationally on tackling rising energy prices and ensuring security of supply, but there are no current plans to follow the EU's decision.”
