Nearly half of Tory voters want to renationalise energy firms to help the UK cope with the cost of living crisis, a new poll has found.
The YouGov survey for The Times found that 47 per cent of Tory supporters believe gas and electricity companies should be brought back into public ownership.
Just 28 per cent of Conservatives want them to remain in private hands, the poll revealed, with 25 per cent unsure. Overall, the poll found that 61 per cent of UK voters want energy renationalised, with 45 per cent believing the move would bring down bills.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have ruled out nationalisation with the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon saying it is an option that must be kept on the table as Ofgem revealed the energy price cap will rise to £3,549 in October.
The findings put more pressure on Tory leadership contenders Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to come up with radical solutions to the energy crisis when one of them becomes prime minister next week.
Scottish Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine said parliament should have been recalled to halt the 80 per cent price rise in energy costs.
She said: “What we have is a zombie government that isn’t doing anything. It’s not coming up with a solution that will even touch the sides of the problem.
“There are families and pensioners and small businesses in my constituency are facing. They were elected to govern and make decisions that doing neither the moment and they should have recalled parliament.”
Tory Minister Victoria Prentis MP said she rejected the idea of renationalising the UK’s energy industry. Prentis, who is backing Sunak, said Tories backing renationalisation were “probably” wrong.
She said: “What we have to do with government is to make sure that particularly vulnerable households can pay those bills, but what we need to do is not necessarily help everybody in the country in the same way we need to make sure that.
"While we will be providing some general support £400 for every household in the country - most of our support goes to those really vulnerable households, particularly pensioners, people with disabilities for example, people who really don’t have other options.”
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