Nigel Farage's 10-year warning as he blasts Labour over 'highest energy bills in Europe'
Farage offered an ominous prediction that the country's already costly energy bills are only going to increase over the decade.
Nigel Farage issued a dire warning over Ed Miliband's approach as Energy Secretary, as the Labour Government faces a crunch vote on cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance.
In a video on his X profile on Monday night, the Reform UK leader predicted the country's already costly bills are only going to increase over the decade.
"So the big vote on the winter fuel allowance, let's be clear: Reform will vote against this benefit being removed," the Brexit architect told his two million followers.
"Already, we pay the highest energy bills in the whole of Europe, massively higher energy bills than they do in America," Farage continued.
"And given the plans that Ed Miliband has put forward, our energy bills will only go up over the course of the next 10 years."
Reform will vote against Labour’s cut to the winter fuel allowance. pic.twitter.com/svpDRaAWuD
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) September 9, 2024
In the second half of last year, UK domestic electricity prices were higher than any country in the EU, though gas prices in Britain were 20 percent below the EU average, according to House of Commons research.
European energy prices have been rising since mid-2021 and were massively impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2020.
Analysts at Cornwall Insight forecast that gas and electricity bills are will increase rise by nearly £150 a year to £1,714 in October, from the current £1,568 - a two-year low.
Households are already facing a tough winter, with millions of pensioners to be deprived of winter fuel payments this year for the first time since it was introduced in 1997.
DON'T MISS:
Winter Fuel Payment vote guide - from what time to rebels [REPORT]
Blundering minister hints Labour no longer committed to free bus passes [INSIGHT]
Reeves ignores Labour MPs warning that pensioners will die with winter fuel cut [LATEST]
Cornwall Insight believes bills are unlikely to be anything like their pre-war averages of around £1,200 in the foreseeable future.
Craig Lowrey, principal consultant at the forecaster, said: “While we don’t expect a return to the extreme prices of recent years, it’s unlikely that bills will return to what was once considered normal. Without significant intervention, this may well be the new normal.”
As of 2024, electricity rates in the US are generally lower than they are in the UK, with an average cost of about 13.9p per kilowatt-hour (kWh). It's around 22.36p per kWh in the UK, according to energy switching service Switchcraft.
Miliband says GB Energy, a publicly-owned firm that will manage and operate clean power projects across the country, will create supply chains and jobs, whilst protecting Britons from international market shocks.
The former Labour leader previously told MPs that the country has seen "the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation because of our exposure to fossil fuels.
"We have seen prices rise again on October 1, not because of decisions made by Government but because of our dependence on international gas markets," he said.
“The argument for clean energy that we used to debate 15 years ago was a climate argument. It is now as much an energy security argument as a climate argument.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer faces a major Labour rebellion on Tuesday over the party's Winter Fuel Payments plan, which would see it restricted to only those on pension credit. However, Labour's massive majority means it's all but certain to be passed.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the squeeze in July as part of a series of measures aimed at filling what she called a £22 billion black hole in the public finances which she claimed had been left by the Tories.
