Andy Burnham has said ministers will consider whether standing charges can be removed from gas bills to ease cost pressures on households.
The Prime Minister told the Commons he had asked Chancellor John Healey and Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh to examine scrapping the charges and to report back to MPs as soon as possible.
Mr Burnham was asked about the Government’s decision to approve for the Jackdaw gas field in Prime Minister’s Questions.
He said he had made a decision that the previous Tory government “messed up”.
“That’s why there was the delay, because they didn’t do the process properly. And we’ve made a pragmatic decision, Mr Speaker, that will allow us to do two things.
“Firstly, build a bridge to a renewable future because the resources that come in now from this decision will allow us to invest in renewables, bring forward clean energy and in this Parliament, substantially de-link gas and electricity prices so that we can bring bills down.
“It will also allow us, Mr Speaker, to do more to help people with bills. I can tell the House today that I have asked the Chancellor and the Energy Secretary (Miatta Fahnbulleh) to look at whether we can remove standing charges from gas bills and to report back to this House at the earliest opportunity.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had criticised the Labour Government for “dithering” for two-and-a-half years to approve Jackdaw, as she called for Labour to repeal its ban on all new oil and gas licences.
“We have the resources, the expertise and the people,” she said. “What we have lost is the confidence to make tough decisions”.
