SCOTTISH households could face annual energy bills of £5000 from next year amid Tory U-turns and Labour abstentions, the SNP have said.
It comes after MoneySavingExpert Martin Lewis warned that typical energy bills could rise by as much as 73% after the Tory government scrapped its plans to offer long-term help.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, brought in by Liz Truss to help prop up her failing government, reversed many of her key policies in an attempt to calm the markets.
He scrapped plans to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20 to 19%, scrapped plans to lower corporation tax, and announced a scaling back of the energy price cap freeze, which will now last for only six months instead of the two years initially promised.
SNP energy spokesperson Alan Brown MP branded the decision reckless, warning households face massive energy bill rises again in April 2023.
Different firms are predicting different energy bill rises from that date. Cornwall Insight is saying they will hit £4347 annually, RBC Capital Markets is predicting £4684, and Auxilione said typical energy bills could hit £5000.
In October 2021, the price cap meant an average household's energy bills would be just £1277.
Accusing Labour of failing to offer real opposition, Kilmarnock and Loudon MP Brown said that real support to support households could only come with the full powers of independence.
Yesterday the Tories pulled most of their energy support package. The SNP had an "on the day" motion to force Govt to come back to Parliament confirming future support, protecting most vulnerable and reporting on fuel poverty. Labour abstained.🤦♂️🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/17oXrBi0fA
— Alan Brown MP (@AlanBrownSNP) October 18, 2022
Brown tweeted that Labour had abstained on a motion he and other SNP MPs had proposed forcing the UK Government to come forward with its plans for energy support.
He said: “It can be in no doubt that Scots, who are paying a heavy price for Westminster’s failures, would be better off with the full powers of independence.
“On a day where the Scottish Government set out a prospectus offering a brighter economic future the Tory UK government were forced to roll back heavily on its proposals that crashed the UK economy. And with it they recklessly removed the very little protection they offered to households through what is set to be an ever-worsening cost of living crisis the Tories have failed to get a grip of.
“They were already too late to act on energy bills, and now households face even bigger rises in April when the measly half-baked proposals to help families are scaled back in the latest iteration of Westminster Tory austerity.
“What’s worse is that, given a chance to stand up for struggling households, the Labour Party once again sat on its hands and refused to offer up real opposition, leaving families in the firing line. There is little difference between the Conservative and Labour parties these days.
“By contrast, to help with the cost-of-living crisis the Scottish Government have used their limited powers to uprate eight benefits and bring in further increases to the Scottish Child Payment, but all of that work risks being undone or offset by the calamity ensuing in Westminster. It's clear real support can only come with independence.
"Scots should no longer be forced to bear the rising cost of Westminster failure and must be able to assume the full powers of independence so they can set out on a different, better path.”
