Osborne attacks Miliband’s “fag packet” energy policy

The chancellor George Osborne has attacked Ed Miliband’s plans to freeze energy bills as something “you draw up on the back of a fag packet”.

In his keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Osborne also said that Labour’s energy policy has “unravelled”.

He added: “Any politician would love to tell you that they can wave a magic wand and freeze you energy bill.

“Everyone wants cheaper energy. So we’re legislating to put everyone on the cheapest tariff.”

The chancellor went on to say the government would pursue “new sources of energy like shale gas” and the development of new nuclear generation.

Ed Miliband’s plans were also attacked by climate change minister Greg Barker as “worse than a gimmick; it’s a price con”.

Barker added that the policy proposed last week by the Labour leader is not “the solution to the dominance of the big 6,” adding, “now they want to put up the barrier to entry so high with their new red tape regulator that no one will ever rise to challenge them.

“These energy giants are of Labour’s own making and if Ed Miliband were to win we would be stuck with them in a groundhog day of rising energy bills, and failed Harold Wilson style government intervention.”

The minister added that the government has helped to bring energy bills down with the warm home discount scheme helping “hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families and pensioners”, while the Green Deal is still in its “early days” and making its “first steps”.

He added: “Next year we’ll see the Green Deal go up a gear as we begin local, community led, street-by-street rollout in earnest.”