A top Tory has suggested Brits save a few quid by ironing wrapping paper - as energy bills double to £2,500 a year and nurses get a real-terms pay cut.
Rebecca Pow posted a video of herself with an iron and ironing board, re-using last year’s festive wrap.
“It saves a lot of money but also saves an awful lot of waste”, the Environment Minister said, while Tory ministers refuse to discuss pay with striking nurses.
Speaking under her low timber ceiling, on the same day a minister warned people against “risky activities” during an ambulance strike, she added: “Obviously you have to be really careful, low low low heat on the iron, because one does not want any risk of fire ”.
Ms Pow’s local Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service tweeted in 2018: “Keep your decorations, cards and wrapping paper away from candles, fires, lights and heaters.”
Luckily for her festive tips, however, it did not say anything about irons.
Ms Pow posted a link to a government website explaining “24 ways to waste not this Christmas”, including: “Why not use old newspaper to wrap gifts or even recycle last year’s paper.”
Other tips including using a re-usable fabric bow, LED Christmas tree lights, baked gifts and a Christmas walk instead of an hour of TV.
It comes after average household energy bills nearly doubled from £1,277 a year last Christmas to £2,500 a year this Christmas.
In reality bills will be slightly lower as all electricity bill-payers are getting £400 off this winter. But that is still much higher than last winter - and average bills are set to rise to £3,000 a year from April.
Not all of Ms Pow’s Twitter followers were so impressed with her festive tip.
One, Martin Wiliams, tweeted: “Perhaps this is what Ministers are suggesting to the nurses and ambulance drivers unions in the meetings where they won't discuss pay.”
Another, ‘Absolute Beginner’, posted: “Warning: This is not a parody. Just when you think that they can’t patronise you any further.
“Maybe nurses could try this, then they wouldn’t need a pay rise”.
