Tom Greatrex MP, Labour’s Shadow Energy Minister, responding to the Government’s announcement to consult on introducing criminal sanctions for people found to be rigging wholesale energy markets, said:

“This is further evidence of David Cameron’s Government struggling to catch up with reality after having been caught napping on the job. This consultation comes nine months after the Energy Secretary first promised to make the regulators do their job, and nearly two years since allegations of illegal price rigging in the energy markets.

“There is an urgent crisis of consumer confidence in the energy market. That is why Labour will freeze energy bills until 2017, so prices cannot rise, and create a tough new watchdog as part of the biggest overhaul of our energy market since privatisation.”