Caroline Flint News

Caroline Flint MP, Labour’s Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, commenting on allegations of price fixing in the electricity market reported by ITV Business Editor Laura Kuenssberg, said:

These fresh allegations suggest that price fixing could be happening in the electricity market, as well as the gas market, which is deeply worrying and must be investigated as fully and rapidly as possible.

Whatever the outcome of these investigations, it is increasingly clear that there are deep structural problems with the way our energy market works and is regulated.

For too long, these energy companies have been allowed to get away with running their businesses in such a complicated way that it is almost impossible for anyone to know what the true cost of energy is.

These allegations show why it is more important than ever to create a tough new regulator the public can trust and to force the gas and electricity companies to sell the energy they generate into a pool, to open up the market and ensure fairer consumer prices.

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Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint criticised the time taken for the coalition to tackle energy bills and accused the Government of being "completely clueless" in helping struggling households.

She said: "Our energy market needs a complete overhaul, but this Government is only fiddling at the margins.

"Labour will stand up for hard-pressed families and pensioners and end the rip-off.

"We will break the stranglehold of the big six energy companies by making them sell all of their energy into a pool, encouraging new entrants, increasing competition and driving down energy bills for families."

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• Caroline Flint