Labour’s price freeze voted down by only 27

Labour’s proposed price freeze for energy bills was voted down again in the House of Commons today, but the government’s majority fell to only 27.

The last time MPs voted on Labour’s planned energy price freeze in November, the government had a majority of 58. Today MPs voted against the motion by 275 to 248.

This followed an opposition debate on the price freeze, where shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint said the move by SSE to freeze its prices until 2016 was proof that energy market was broken and that a price freeze was a workable solution.

During the debate, Flint stated that the issue could be “kicked into the long grass” by the government who would leave the “problem” to be picked up by another minister in another government.

She also urged MPs to back the price freeze and package of reforms put forward by Labour because “reforms need to be consistent” across the market.

After the vote, Flint added that the government was “panicking because they know Labour’s energy price freeze is popular and the right thing for hardworking people”.

John Robertson, a Labour member of the Energy and Climate Change select committee (ECCC), said the major energy companies had “shown their true face” and were bullying their customers and the government with threats of blackouts, should a freeze be introduced.

However, the ECCC chair Tim Yeo accused Labour of “playing politics with people’s bills” and stated that SSE’s withdrawal from three windfarms – which was announced at the same time as their price freeze – showed Labour’s policy would affect investment levels.

Energy secretary Ed Davey once again criticised Labour’s planned price freeze, calling it “a gimmick, not a policy”.

He told MPs a government legislated price freeze would “risk all the progress we have made for customers and businesses”.

Davey added: “It would undermine the independent suppliers and force customers back to the big six.”