Dodds accuses Tory leadership candidates of “fantasy economics”

Anneliese Dodds has accused Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss of offering “fantasy economics” in response to the cost-of-living crisis and urged the Conservative leadership candidates to back Labour’s “fully-costed” plan.

In a Times Radio interview this morning, the chair of the Labour Party and Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary said both Truss and Sunak are “not saying how they would deliver anything, they keep changing their plans every five minutes”.

The shadow minister also warned that the “massive increase” in the price cap on energy bills, which Ofgem announced last week will rise to £3,549 from October 1st, will “plunge many, many households into financial distress”.

The Labour Party announced earlier this month that it would freeze gas and electricity prices immediately, keeping the energy price cap at its current level of £1,971 until April – a move it said would save the typical household £1,000.

The party said the proposal could be paid for by making changes to the windfall tax, including backdating the tax to include excess profits made since January and closing a loophole allowing tax relief on investment in the North Sea.

Dodds criticised reported plans being prepared by Truss to support more oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea, telling listeners: “It’s not and the answer really is to be taking action to get the cost of those bills down.”

Allies of the Tory leadership favourite have been formulating her response to the energy crisis. Truss has been criticised for delaying her announcement until after the Conservative leadership election concludes. One of her allies said: “Rest assured there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes.”

According to The Times, Truss will invite applications for drilling licences to explore new fields with the paper reporting that as many as 130 licences will be issued. The last time the government began a licensing round was in 2019, which resulted in the award of 113 licences.

The North Sea still contains gas and oil equivalent to around 15 billion barrels, according to the latest estimates from Offshore Energies UK. The country’s total energy consumption equates to approximately a billion barrels of oil a year.

Greenpeace UK’s Dr Doug Parr said in response to the reports that “unleashing a North Sea drilling frenzy isn’t a plan to help bill payers but a gift to the fossil fuel giants already making billions from this crisis”.

“New oil and gas could take a quarter of a century to pump out, will be eventually sold at global prices, and have no real impact on energy bills yet still fuel the climate crisis,” he warned.

“If Liz Truss really wants to help cash-strapped households, she should bring in an energy bill freeze alongside extra financial support for the poorest households, partly funded by properly taxing the astronomical profits of oil and gas companies.”

Rishi Sunak was accused of undermining the government’s climate policy when he promised to boost the production of oil and gas in the North Sea with new licences earlier this month – a move climate campaigners called “utterly bewildering”.