Caroline Flint MP, Labour’s Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, commenting after the vote in the House of Commons on giving OFGEM the power to force energy companies to cut prices when wholesale costs fall, which was defeated by Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs, said: 

“Today the Tories and Lib Dems voted against cutting people’s energy bills. They had the chance to stand up for millions of families who are being ripped off by the big energy firms. Instead, they stood up in favour of the energy companies. They now have nobody else to blame for the failure of the energy companies to pass on the full savings from wholesale cost falls to all consumers.   

“The next Labour government is committed to making big changes in our energy market: freezing energy prices until 2017 so that bills can fall but not rise, resetting the market and bringing in a tough new regulator with the power to force energy companies to cut their prices when wholesale costs fall.”