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Ed Miliband switched energy supplier after getting £1,000 bill

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The Labour leader made the move to a smaller gas and electricity supplier after receiving a large energy bill

Miliband switched from E.ON to First Utility last winter

Ed Miliband explained that last winter he switched from E.ON, one of the big six energy suppliers, to First Utility, the largest independent energy supplier in the UK.

He added that his wife had made the decision to switch and he did not know how much money the household had saved.

Energy bills are currently at the forefront of Labour’s campaign in the run up to the 2015 general election. Miliband has proposed freezing energy bills for 20 months should he be voted into office.

The proposition has been given a mixed reception, with many welcoming the initiative and others calling the proposition unworkable.

Prime Minister David Cameron recently described the price freeze proposal as “the politics of the conman”.

‘He’s a prime minister for Centrica’

Miliband retorted and told the Mail on Sunday: “It’s a sure sign that someone is losing the argument when they lose their cool.

“He has gone from saying it wasn’t a problem to telling people to wear jumpers. For goodness’ sake, it’s an insult. It’s Edwina Currie-esque.

“He used to say he was a prime minister for the centre ground, now he’s a prime minister for Centrica. He’s not willing to stand up to the big energy firms.”

Brits against green energy subsidies on bills

A poll carried out in the Mail on Sunday found that 60% of consumers oppose green levies on energy bills. Green subsidies were one of the causes singled out by energy companies for the recent gas and electricity price rises.

Close to three-quarters of those surveyed said energy prices would influence their voting in the next election. Forty per cent said they supported Cameron’s approach to the energy market and 33% Miliband’s 20 month price freeze.

When it comes to pinning the blame for rising energy prices, 59% said the fault lay with energy companies, 15% blamed the previous labour government and 15% blamed the coalition government.

Read more

Government calls for Brits to keep heating on this winter

Avoiding energy price rises – switch now or later?

Low carbon policies should add 1% to energy bills in 2014

  • john galt

    c£1 in £10 of energy bills is the green tax’band’ , most of which pioneered by MiliBAND. All this politics over energy is annoying. Energy is expensive – yes. Energy use drives economic growth – yes – so lets argue and shut it all down. Energy infrastructure more so – £200bn need to be spent on upgrading it. Either charge everyone £8k for this, or make energy companies attractive for investment (pay a reliable small dividend on the capital risk). or just tax everyone £8k over the period for it. Energy companies in the UK, make collectively small profits on running the largest machine in the country, compared to say our love of buying smartphones, who make gazillions of generally tax free profit, monthly, in excess of what the old energy companies make. Then again its fun to blame the bankers, energy companies, and someone else for the halving in union membership over the last decade or so and the general rise in living standards when we spend so much time of the day not working but complaining over things, and blaming anyone who makes a profit as someone against the principles of the masses.

  • Rejtan

    Lol. The funny thing is that First Utility was the company that raised their energy prices last Spring. While they did it they were using some really dirty tactics. They would underestimate the meter readings for customers who did not provide them during the last few months before the price rise and then even if you provided them with the correct reading on the day the price changed they would ignore it. And then “wham!”- a month later they would “update” your reading and ask you to pay for all the underestimated units at the new price level.

  • mike

    Glad i just stocked up on logs.

    • monty

      When I saw my Gas bill I produced my own.

  • hanginglangford

    WHY OH WHY DO WE HAVE THE MILLIBANDS, CLEGGS,CAMERON AND CO INVOLVING THEMSELVES IN FUEL COSTS, WHILST, CONVENIENTLY FORGETTING THAT WE ARE ‘SHELLING OUT’. £51 MILLION A DAY TO THE EU, £11 BILLION A YR TO FOREIGN AID, UNLIMITED BUDGETS SPENT ON ASYLUM SEEKERS/ IMMIGRATION PAYOUTS/ HOUSING, WIND FARMS THAT CAN ONLY OPERATE IN CERTAIN WEATHER CONDITIONS, WARS ON THE GO AND THEY ALL PUT THIS ‘EFFORT’ INTO TRYING TO APPEAR TO BE INTERESTED IN THE PUBLIC’S AUSTERITY EFFORT. NEXT THEY’LL BE GIVING A PAY OUT TO ‘CHILD PROTECTION PERSON’ AT CAMDEN WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IT WAS FOR BABY P!!! AS THE PAYING PUBLIC WE ARE BEING ‘MUGGED’ BY OUR OWN, SUPPOSEDLY MP’s!!!!!

    • Jim O’Toole

      I think you left the caps lock on…..

      • Pavlov’sBitch

        I think Eddie and Cameron could do with your advice on energy bill CAPS.

      • Joe Bloggs

        Yeah, according to netiquette leaving the caps lock on is known as SHOUTING and its usually regarded as bad manners.

    • 011

      cos it takes the spotlight off of what a usless crowd they are

    • candy8

      The short answer is that they don’t deal with anything, they just like to make the right noises while continuing to fleece the tax payer.

  • Zipgun1

    Does Cameron not realise that all politics is “the politics of the conman”.

  • the black spanner

    I’ve got a small 6KW diesel standby generator which has now become cheaper to run than buying my electricity from SSE.
    I originally bought it 3 years ago for a self build project but now use it as my domestic supply from time to time.
    50p per hour for diesel is is MUCH cheaper than I can buy 6kw per hour from SSE.

    • Rob Kay

      You use 6 kw per hour? What on earth for, that’s a huge amount.

      • DeadReckoning

        Ever tried cooking?

        • Minto

          6kW per hour? Are you growing cannabis?

          • DeadReckoning

            Why do you think cookers have a 30 AMP supply? – are you incapable of basic maths (did you attend a state school perhaps, with their “qualified” teachers?)

          • Joe Bloggs

            Hey hey hey not all state schools were rubbish! It just used to be a case of passing the 11+ and going to grammar school or technical college. In my own case I’d been entered for the exams at a couple of private schools (didn’t get any bursaries though!) but the practice made the 11+ a walkover. I finished the exam and after checking my answers I left the exam room half an hour before the end. The result was that I could go to any school in the area!

            I DID NOT want to end up at “Ravey Street” (Ravensbury Street) where the exam was sat as the walls were covered in star-bursts of ink resulting from ink-wells being hurled against them, nice! Unfortunately for 90% of the population the Ravey Street type of schools are the only education they can get.

          • DeadReckoning

            Yes, well try Creighton (Muswell Hill) in the 1970s when the Labour party bussed in the Tottenham kids to destroy any hope of a decent education unless paid for (again).

          • Ade Jones

            In that post, you started a sentence with a hyphen. You also asked three questions, but only used two question marks.

            One must assume that your teachers were inadequately qualified…

          • richard

            Did he start the sentence with a hyphen?

          • DeadReckoning

            Or that I am lazy when posting. My English teacher had the military cross – not sure he went to TTC though!

          • ferret70

            This assumes that the cooker is using 30 Amps for the entire hour. In reality it does not, simply using much less than that for short spells as it maintains the required temperature. I think your understanding of the workings of your electrical devices needs to move beyond the basic.

          • DeadReckoning

            Nevertheless it is a 6 KW appliance, because it’s the max rating that matters. Some naive poster was claiming that using 6 kw (even for an entire property) was far too much, I pointed out that one single appliance can use all of that (and it can), what’s your problem?

          • Ted

            Your clearly have a sense that you are of high intellectual standing by virtue of your parents paying for you to go to private school.
            However, I would hazard a guess that in fact your Exam results probably suggest that your parents wasted their money, particularly in your specialist subject of Maths.

          • DeadReckoning

            Hazard all you like. I know that if I had gone to Creighton, I would probably not be paying the excessive rate of income tax that funds these glorious socialist experiments in the peoples republic of Haringay (sic).

    • Mike Stride

      Are some of the other posters a bit dense or just being facetious ? Just because it’s a genny that’s capable of delivering that output, it doesn’t mean you’re using the lot ! You must live in a fairly isolated spot though; imagine the noise if everyone in a street had one going !

  • Dan Barkley

    Surprised he didn’t get the 42p/kWh solar panels he introduced. As for green taxes, it would be madness to get rid of them as they push people to insulate and reduce consumption, meaning we don’t need so many power stations and don’t warm the planet as much.

    • Andy_London

      You seem to be conveniently ignoring the facts that the expansion of coal-fired power stations in China wipe out any carbon savings achieved in the UK.

      Our savings are pure tokenism. Nice if you can afford it, but the difference between choosing whether to heat or to eat if you are a pensioner.

      At the very least, fund this lunacy out of income tax so that it does not hit the poor disproportionately. But then MPs are on at least £66,000 a year so they would have to pay more and turkeys don’t usually vote for Christmas.

      • Nosuchthingasapoorpensionior

        You Andy are ignoring the facts, sick of saying no pensioner has to choose between eating and heating, that is a myth. There are generous heating allowances added on top of the already generous benefits they get. They are one of the richest groups in society.

        • Bemused

          You will discover when you retire on just over £100 p.w. That a large proportion of that goes on gas and electricity. £200 per year helps but if one cannot use public transport with advancing age and it’s problems, then if you are a homeowner, you will get no other benefit other than free prescriptions. Hopefully as a couple who have worked all their lives, you will also have a small private pension to help with other living expenses but if your total income is over £260 p.w. (Which is not being rich) no other benefit can be claimed. It is ok though because we lived during really austere times and learned how to cope without complaining so needing to have a warm blanket close to our armchair is no hardship.

  • teddy

    Well there we have it – if you were ever in doubt to vote for Ed at the next election this action by him (or his wife) in switching energy suppliers shows just how much he is in touch with the general public and real-life issues. Now all he has to do is use public transport, use the NHS, take a 97% pay-cut, get a mortgage, and join the real world.

    • 011

      right..but I wouldn’t hold my breath…

    • Matron

      Bring back the old days. Carry your water in buckets.Take a bath every week. Use candles. Light a coal fire.Home cooking. Grow your own veg.Chores and strictness within the family unit.Go to school.We all knew our own place. I could go on but its all true

    • SNS

      …don’t forget to add “loose his job only months before Christmas” to the list.

      Although, it must be hard to pay those bills when your the leader of (or at least quite high up in) a government party! I feel for him!

    • Commie Ken

      Come the Revolution he will be the first up against the wall.

  • john

    He must have been using all that electricity reading all the emails we have been sending him regarding our local governement failings on racial violence at our home

  • the working man

    100% should blame capitalisation… Create several companies with board members who expect £1million+ pay packages whilst paying the majority of their workers peanuts to run ‘the cheapest’ billing system. Supply costs – the same, infrastructure cost – the same (government owned). What a farce…

    • Romford_Dave

      “The struggle of case against case is a political struggle” – kARL mARX 1847

  • Paul

    He’s earning enough to be able to pay it, many people can’t. It just shows if the bills are affecting the MP’s, they want to try paying it out of my pension!

  • Alan

    Our country has been ruined by inept politicians and the most inept, or maybe cruel,Margaret Thatcher started the ball rolling by selling things that were not hers to sell. Yes I am talking council houses, built over generations with taxpayers money. Sold off at ridiculously low rates and guess what in Fulham you can rent and ex council flat for only £1500 a month (2 bed ) what a great idea that was. The stupid tories have carried it on by selling the railways and utility companies . This enables foreign investors who don’t give a toss about our living standards to come in and rob us blind.

    • julianzzz

      Yes it’s really, really dumb, Thatcher’s legacy, you get to live in an ex-council flat, but badly maintained and owned by a Brazilian who charges more than you earn, but that’s OK because the tax payer will subsidise your cosy relationship! Now Cameron has vans going around threatening immigrants who have lived all their lives in the country whilst at the same time he’s tripping around the Middle East and China trying to get foreigners into the UK to buy all the best houses and build dodgy nuclear power stations. He really hasn’t got a clue. He doesn’t represent any British born constituent, he represents money and those that have it, and the poor are his enemy.

  • Richard Stringer

    Miliband couldn’t care less about poor and disabled people, all he cares about is winning the next election and he’s using this energy price freeze to secure the win. Deep down he couldn’t care less how poor and idsabled people are suffering, you can tell that by how he said earlier this year that he’ll cut benefits even more, which which mean EVEN more disabled people suffering.

    • Martin Santa

      Richard I fear tis you who hasn’t a care for poor or disabled people. My daughter works housekeeping at Premier Inns & gets £100 per week wage out of that she has to pay half her rent (£50) plus bedroom tax £14, cannot get a home move and will have to meet the new energy prices. As a state pensioner (worked all my life to deserve this) I have to still feed my daughter because of government taxes on the poor.
      Ed is spot on switching to a supplier that is not bent on profiteering like the big six & their MP shareholders.

      • Guest

        I do the same Martin, helping the kids out

    • Dekpat

      Your history / simple research would have told you that Miliband and the party he represent is the total opposite of what you have babbled here. Or are you so brainwashed or just simply lacks intelligence?

      • Alan21

        If you look at the energy price graph they starting when he was Energy Minister, because he starting these expensive scams, and now there are reports that MP’s energy is being subsidised by the taxpayer.

    • snowted

      Utter rubbish Richard, Labour are the ONLY party that cares about the poor and disabled.

  • julianzzz

    “Green taxes” only put a tenner on an average bill, they go to help pensioners insulate and install new boilers. Cameron promised the greenest conservative government ever. So in a tight spot, he weasels out, does a U turn and attacks the poorest, whilst defending the big corporations. Nice one, Dave, at least you are protecting the 5% of the population you represent. Pity you also conned half of the rest of the voting population.

    • Andy_London

      Green taxes plus VAT and climate change levy and all the other stealth taxes originally created by Miliband as Energy Secretary amount to around 15% of a typical bill. They are not based on the ability to pay.

      If people feel so strongly that they want to bankrupt the UK while China and India build loads of coal-fired power stations, then let them try and raise the money from income tax so that plutocrats in Islington like Miliband pay more.

      It is Miliband’s stealth taxes that are forcing hard-up pensioners to choose between eating and heating.

      • Jimmy R

        While I can see what you are trying to say, it is a very short sighted approach. It is sensible to invest in green tech so that when the coal/oil runs out the lights are still on and the world still turns. But and it’s a big but that is as long as it is actually being invested in green tech. as well as the actual research into the tech there may also be a decent return on the investment if the tech takes off.

        • noelfrancis

          is it sensible to invest in ‘green tech’ when the electricity generated costs so much more to produce than that from conventional power stations, including so called expensive nuclear power?
          Why should we pay for wind turbine subsidies going to rich landowners? If the subsidies were withdrawn you wouldnt have ‘green energy’.

      • Nosuchthingasapoorpensionior

        No pensioner in the UK has to choose between heating and food, they earn way more than the average worker with the housing benefit and that is not counting other perks such as free travel to name just one. There is also a heating allowance. if the pensioners you know are going without heating it is because they are wasting money, no other reason. They can easily afford heating and food plus most pensioners shop at Marks and Spencers for clothes, which are out of the price range for the average worker. No pensioner is poor in the UK, FACT.

        • Ratz

          & you have evidence of this alleged Fact?? no I think the FACT is , you do not have a clue , are yu possibly of the Tory party?/

          • Rubbish

            Actually yes I do have evidence of this fact, look up the basic minimum pension. The FACT is you are assuming I don’t have a clue when in reality you don’t.

          • Rubbish

            Oh and how immature to thumb me down when you have not done your research.

          • Ratz

            Done it again, I must be so immature for a 56yr old person oh dear then TS

          • Ratz

            Oh I do have a clue & have many many friends & relations that are pensioners , where nearly all of them struggle, after working for 50 yrs they are at their poorest point in life, yu research? ha yu definitely do NOT have a clue FACT

          • Minto

            There is also a Warm Home Discount payment of £130 towards electricity for pensioners on income below £13000 so the actual allowance is £330. More than generous I think.

          • Big Al

            Is that the billpayer or the household income? (£13000).

          • Anth

            Pension, council tax and housing benefit adds up to at least £200 per week too most and is not a bad living wage when you throw the other freebies in

            Anyone who struggles must be stupid with their cash, and if they worked all their lives why didnt they buy their house or join a company pension?

            As usual in UK blame everybody else for your how your life is

          • Joe Bloggs

            You haven’t got a clue mate. I am an old age pensioner and at the age of 65 I got letters and phone calls from the DWP because I was now eligible for the Old Age Pension. The DWP actually seemed disappointed that I was still alive. Anyhow they then pestered me to claim a pension from an execrable employer that I washed my hands of long ago. At the time claiming the pension seemed a good idea as credit card bills had accumulated. It was actually a very bad idea as between the taxman, the DWP and the council they Hoovered-up my “windfall” of £31K pension arrears and then said that they wanted more! The “windfall” actually became a debt as the taxman wanted another £500! It is the sort of thing that one might expect in Zimbabwe.

            An even worse scam was pulled on a pensioner aged 69. Long ago he had had the yen to live in Spain but after a couple of months he threw in the towel. Although he had never paid any money towards the flat he still had his name on the worthless deeds (Spaniards were now living in the flat which presumably had been seized for non-payment) The DWP and a kangaroo court convicted this bloke of fraud and he was given a criminal record! His pension was cut to about £40 per week and his Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit was cut off! With overheads now of about £75 per week plus food, heat and clothing, each week he will be at least £40 deeper in debt. All done with Notional Income and false accounting.

        • Thinkthingsthrough

          Not a fact. Age Concern says that 1 in 6 pensioners live in poverty, and nearly as many on the brink of it. After a lifetime of hard work, a large percentage of pensioners certainly cannot afford to buy food or clothes in M&S. They get a one-off £200 winter fuel payment, not a heating allowance. Older and chronically ill pensioners can be physically more vulnerable to cold so need the heating. The basic state pension is £110.15 per week, which does not cover the £120+ .per week usual social rent for a one bedroom flat. They do get some free travel, which enables them to travel around to find cheap food, and to visit relatives. Which should not be begrudged to them after their lifetime’s work and caring, and in the last few years of active life. Why pick on pensioners? If you are on a low income, why not take positive action with others instead of wasting energy by falling for for the government’s classic divide and rule strategy? The pensioners living in poverty are for the most part not the same pensioners that lived high on the hog on credit. Those pensioners are more likely to be still relatively well-off, with larger private pensions.

          • anth

            Wouldnt get housing benefit would they?? £110 pension and £120 rent, what bs

            May pay £6 rent a week from it, if they bought there house they would pay nothing

          • snowted

            One in six is not a large percentage. There is obviously some pensioners that are in poverty but the over 65s have most of the wealth these days and often they are helping out their struggling kids and grandkids. Myself and my partner have been helped by our pensioner parents.

          • deadbeforefreelicence

            wow, free TV licence at 75…..remind me….what’s the average life expectancy in England again?

          • mark

            Free TV licenses, free bus travel, state pension, free subscriptions and NHS, winter fuel allowance, higher tax allowance…..
            But tell me “what have the Romans ever done for us?”

        • noelfrancis

          Dream on you fool…I would trade my bus pass and heating allowance for a decent pension. I do not qualify for housing benefit .nor do I shop at M & S. You have obviously never had to count the pennies young man.

        • myboyharley

          Absolute rubbish and a gross over statement.

        • CallYouOut

          You really have no idea what you’re talking about..
          I could post a vast amount of information here to prove that fact but I’d rather not waste the time and thus request you to do some research.

          New legislation is making things worse. Thankyou Cameron & Clegg, thankyou for making immigration out of this mess of a country all that more appealing.

    • Nosuchthingasapoorpensionior

      All pensioners in the UK earn far more at the basic minimum level with housing benefit and other perks such as no council tax, than the average worker. Added to that free prescriptions, generous heating allowance, discounts virtually everywhere, free bus fares etc. Any pensioner in the UK short on money has a gambling or drinking problem, or at the very least spends far too much.Pensions do not need a rise, they need a cut, it is their generation that have caused the credit crunch living on credit ever since the aftermath of World War 2, and now the vast majority think the world owes them a living whilst ignoring the fact that they have shafted ours and future generations for a long time to come. It’s not all down to the government as much as I would like to blame them. No doubt somebody will post about a pensioner they know that does not have a lot of money – well no matter how you dress it up, whatever excuses you use, the one and only reason for that is because they spend too much. They earn more than YOU do in their pensions, housin and other benefits.

      • appalled

        what world are you living in you absolute nutter?! pensioners with drink and gambling probems? maybe your parents mate, would explain your stupid ideas.

        • snowted

          There sure most be some with a drink or a gambling habit, how can they all be clean cut?

      • noelfrancis

        I pay £1400 a year council tax…grow up and at least check the information you use before posting it. Then you may get a ‘hearing’..
        I do get free prescriptions worth £500pa, I have a bus pass worth £450pa and free eye test annually ?£20 ? . I do not qualify for housing benefit nor get help with £1500pa utility bills …that is because my income is a tad over the limit for all these ‘freebies ‘ you prattle on about.
        Mind I do think I deserve what I have after a working life of well over 50 years,paying tax and NI and retiring at 69. So put that in your pipe and smoke it young man. I recommend you not to put pen to paper until you check your facts…hint…look at the government website

    • noelfrancis

      Green taxes don’t go to all pensioners, only to those claiming benefits.I know I checked!! As we are about a tenner a week over the limit we get NO help whatsoever with bills, though my poor circulation and ticker make me feel cold enough to wear a sweater/jumper all year round.

    • kingbillmbe

      With the money Dave has saved us on council tax and petrol/diesel prices, we can put that towards the increases and still have a bit left over. The only people who really suffer are ones who have never paid council tax and don’t need fuel to get to work!

      • julianzzz

        Let’s hope you keep your job then. The cash for this dribble of savings has come with a lot of job losses.

        • kingbillmbe

          I don’t work in the public sector so I’m happy with my job situation and if I need another there are a lot of jobs going in the same industry. 34,508 jobs in my area on reed.

          • julianzzz

            Let’s hope you’ll find one that wants you.

    • Joe Bloggs

      In reply to julianzzzz A lot of pensioners in rural areas do not have access to mains gas. They also live in poorly insulated old houses that have neither double glazing nor central heating. In winter they have to huddle in one room that is warmed by an 800 watt heater or a 1 bar electric fire. For such people even a brand new green boiler would be useless even if it was free as there is no gas to run it and no pipes or radiators to use the hot water. Which part of this do the politicians not understand?

      • julianzzz

        Those are the ones who get free insulation and support through a winter fuel allowance set up by the last government. If social services are still operating, those that can’t cope can be given further support. Pensioners are not the worst afflicted group, I fear for young people, and the disabled and the young people who sometimes care for them.

  • Andy_London

    If Ed’s bill was £1,000 just for gas then he’s a prime target for Cable’s mansion tax. Plutocrats like him should pay more so that hard pressed pensioners can afford both to eat and to heat their homes.

    Green taxes, like VAT, hit the poorest disproportionately hard. They should be imposed based on income as only the wealthy can afford the installation costs of gimmicks like Cameron’s solar panels.

  • Me

    Was fixed until APR 14 but I just switched to 30 APR 15 and will save money from what I pay now….you must choose and switch before I think it is 6 DEC…. And I get £30 cash back after 3 months as well……….Recommend go search!

  • andy

    Surely the only way forward must be to ensure truly aggressive competition.. I’m sure if all offered tariffs we’re exactly the same across all suppliers, allowing for total cost transparency we would see exactly this.. We need ‘apples to apples’ comparisons across all suppliers… No more marketing tricks, Let the only differentiating features be the cost & customer service….!!!!

  • Stephen Etherington

    i4-Business Solutions can help you reduce your Business Energy costs too!

  • tom

    Didn’t the previous Tory government first place VAT on fuel? It was either 12.5 or 15% and were not the labour party unable to remove the VAT totally because the overlords in the EEC forbade it. The labour government could only reduce it to the lowest level of VAT in the EEC..how much would we be paying if VAT had not been added in the first place?
    I am neither Tory or Labour and have voted for both in the past I just want a parliament that represents the whole country poor rich and the very much trampled ‘middle classes’

  • Pavlov’sBitch

    Oh, stop … laughing hurts too much! Fishface Eddie doesn’t ‘pay’ bills – none of them do we pay all their bills on their endless expenses. Fancy that, £1000 just to run the heated toilet seat, must be flush with our dosh.

  • smith

    remove the green charge and the vat this will help

  • smith

    HAVE A CHANGE VOTE UKIP

    • SERAPH1212

      Cameron deliberately slandered UKIP just as Thathcher slandered the unemployed when she came to power. !st.Tory party conference with Maggie at the helm, someone shouted from the back of the conference, “What about the unemployed?” To which she replied, “Some people don’t want to work” From that time onwards unemployment levels soared.
      Back to Cameron, UKIP is essentially aiming to claw back our identity from bureaucrats in Brussels. To call its members Closet Racists is clearly an implicit lie.

    • julianzzz

      You can get the same result much more quickly by hanging yourself. Voting UKIP is known to be a serious form of self harm.

  • Karl-Anton

    Why are we expected to believe this fiction about Mr. Insincerity having changed suppliers? From just about the most drab leader of the Labour Party ever, and in that comparison I include Messrs. Foot, Kinnock, Blair and Brown. Why would anybody vote for, or believe Mr.Insincerity, who has as much slimy charm as Stalin and Caucescu.

    • go Ed!

      you judge him on popular perception instead of his policy (which may not always be the best, and granted all politicians these days are career politicians with no life experience outside parliament or civil service) but you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, we did that with cameron and look where we are now. sure he’s a strong leader, but he was holding his fingers crossed behind his back the whole time. it’s an act, nothing more. if ed miliband is half as boring in real life as he is on screen I for one would vote for him hands down!

      • Minto

        Milliband is a Con Man, he is a millionaire with no experience of real life, just like the people he denigrates for exactly the same thing

  • dave

    Ed says he will freeze energy prices, the very next day the energy companies wack their prices up 10 percent, thanks Ed. the price of everything went through the roof under the last labour government (energy, council tax, rents, food), but whilst labour was spending borrowed money like it was running put of fashion nobody noticed.

  • Bonkim

    Great – Miliband is a shrewd home manager and did the right thing.

  • Bob Brello

    i dont believe anything the man says, i find him, clegg and cameron so full of cow waste my ears bleed whenever they open their mouths, today they say this.. tomorrow theyll deny it or argue against it… too many lies and deceitfulness from them .. none are in touch with the working classes nor understand how to talk to them or listen to them .. roll on election day .. goodbye to the lot of em

  • Ben

    well if it isn’t mr hypocrite himself. he sits there talking about people not being able to pay their bills and doesn’t even know how much money his own switch will save. what an imposter.

  • genie

    Just give the OAP’s over 80 their £400 each back a year for heating allowance, stop wealthy OAP’s from getting it as they don’t need it. Simples…….

  • Richard Robinson

    do as i say not as i do typical marxist rhetoric from comrade miliband.

  • SERAPH1212

    Did anyone else notice that the Energy companies need to familiarise themselves with mathematics.
    Firstly, the green taxes are negligible in relation to the 9% hike. However, since the other excuse is that the cost of wholesale supplies has increased, this infers that these costs MUST have increased by the order of 18%. Wholesale costs being quoted as being 46% of the total costs.
    !8%increase of wholesale fuel costs = 9% hike in our fuel bills approx.
    I do not believe such an increase could happen.

  • Soundman

    How did Camoron find out? I would have thought that this sort of information was private and not available for public use. I would be more than a little miffed if my household bills were ridiculed in public.

  • rob

    If you need to cut your energy bills buy a Combi boiler on the web, I did for £468 and found a lovely qualified fitter who charged only £300 to fit it and my gas bill has gone down 40-50% depending on how warm it is:) don’t get the energy companies to do it, they charge a huge amount which would take you years to gain any back any savings on your bills

  • rob

    I see my comment was taken off here, the truth hurt’s

  • Sterling77

    As CBI Chief John Cridland said yesterday, ‘The thought of Miliband in No 10 raised the hairs on the back of my neck.’ Miliband is a nasty con artist and thanks to his ill thought out comments about ‘freezing’ energy prices, they have suddenly gone up a fantastic amount. They will go up again before the next election and afterwards (if they win) watch Labour cut your benefits too. Thank you Red Ed Miliband, your socialist proposals are certainly having a detrimental affect already.

    • julianzzz

      If he feels that, then that’s all the confirmation I need. I’m voting Milliband.

  • Julia Owen

    Yesterday I learnt this. 2 degrees is the limit we can raise the planet’s temperature and we have raised it 1 degree already. 80% of the summer arctic ice has disappeared and oceans are 30% more acidic.
    565 billion tons more carbon can be burnt before the temperature reaches 2 degrees higher. 2,795 tons are already planned to be burnt by countries around the world, that’s five times too much and this figure does not include any supplies obtained by unconventional means, i.e., fracking.
    So we must keep 80% of our present reserves of fossil fuels in the ground let alone start getting more from fracking.
    Germany today is closing nuclear power stations, and using now 50% and an ever increasing amount of free solar and wind power. After the initial investment these fuels will become cheaper for the population and will preserve the planet.
    We have only 15 years to change or humans become extinct as the planet becomes irreversibly uninhabitable. Then the planet can breathe a sigh of relief and rebalance itself.
    YOU can act now. Change to giving your money only to companies that do not invest in fossil fuels. Switch your power supplier, your savings, your insurance, your bank. INFORM everyone as people do not know the dangerous choices our leaders are making. They are in complete denial due to cognitive dissonance, accelerating our journey into complete disaster.
    ENOUGH is ENOUGH and NO MORE.

    • Joe Bloggs

      Hang on a minute, wasn’t the earth a lot warmer when the dinosaurs were around? Didn’t the warm climate allow massive forests to grow which finally became coal and oil?

      By the way the earth has a massive nuclear reactor at its core. This reactor has moved the continents around and built the Himalayas. This means that we live on a very dynamic planet. Not many people understand this unfortunately as the changes happen very slowly.

      Fossil fuels are the remains of plants and animals which lived and died and the prehistoric trees in particular absorbed carbon dioxide. It is noteworthy that Dutch tomato growers inject carbon dioxide into their greenhouses in order to make the plants grow faster. One can then surmise that more CO2 in the atmosphere will make plant life grow faster just as it did in prehistoric times. Gaia will recycle everything so just keep calm and carry on!

  • chris

    interesting that Matthew Hancock, George Osborne’s close ally, switched to ecotricity. Was it because of their anti-fracked gas policy or their pro-green investment policy, or both

  • phanc

    Its all garbage around this switching thing. All that happens is that the suppliers with the fewest customers keep their prices below the biggest to attract more customers. Then their prices slowly creep up to higher than the suppliers they swapped from. OK if you are prepared to swap regularly and follow the cheapest , but in general, if you stay put, the prices average out to be the same as each other. The fundamental issue here is that the suppliers are running something just short of a cartel

  • moe_howard

    a bill for £1000 ? what’s he got – a 45 room castle? As some other wise gentleman said, the swine won’t have paid that himself & now he’ll have to sort out his new Water bill ‘cos that’s going up too

  • Mad Mike

    My bill for next year estimated to be £2218 Ed obviously not at home much of the time.

  • TargettedForDeletion

    Ed paid a bill instead of it being passed on to the poor downtrodden taxpayer? Surely some mistake?

  • kingbillmbe

    What’s the point on saving a few quid on gas and electric when Labour will re introduce Council Tax and Petrol/Diesel Tax increases that this government have had to reverse!

  • Ruedolf

    And two more price hikes by these modern day mill owning off shore mega do what they want utility companies would wipe out the benefit of the green levie being taken out of the bills. Then what ?,. what’s going to be cut then to relieve the pressure on consumers, Why not sell all these companies to Phillip Green then, at least its a Green leaning move,. invoices addressed to Switzerland !…………..This is a result of mindless pathetic governments leading the majority of people of this country desperation !! If this shower get in again,. God (whoever he is ) help the majority of us.

  • Ruedolf

    Somebody put the kettle on !!

  • Ruedolf

    I bet Tony Blair and Maggie are bleeding warm !!

  • Ruedolf

    oh, he wasn’t married to Maggie was he !!, it were Cherie ,……….he was you know !!

  • gaswork

    lol

  • Julia Owen

    I agree the earth will rebalance herself when we are gone, but while we can do something about our survival, and I as I look into my grand children’s innocent eyes, I feel I have a duty to do all I can, even if it is not much, to change our path to destruction. I teach the scientific method and so I accept the evidence as it is presented by scientists today, rather than any spurious argument put forward by climate change deniers paid by oil companies and profit driven politicians.

  • barnstaplesquire

    why i have read that MPs they claim for there energy bills

  • Jack Jazz

    Ed switching supplier to save a few quid means he’s not claiming thousands on expenses to heat his homes like many of the other Westminster pigs with their noses in the trough!

    He seems to be one of the very few MP’s who has some understand of what life is like for the rest of us.

  • jeff

    The reason I am against the green levy is simple, how could Labour say go green, then
    increase our population by allowing millions of immigrants into the country. Our demand for fuel, energy and imports has risen sharply. Labour taxed every thing they could and the Conservatives privatize every thing that makes a profit. Energy prices should NOT be frozen, energy prices should be reduced by at least 30%.

  • Thomas Casey

    Why did he bother? The taxpayer paid it anyway.

  • Andrew

    What a farce it all is, everybody taking up postures and nobody doing anything about it! As for Miliband’s freeze, the energy companies will just raise prices before the Election to carry them through the following 20 months! And why 20 months and not two years, anyone know?

  • tellitlikeitis

    if everyone earning 30k per year or less were exempt from paying tax we would all be better off as we would be spending more in our local economies .

  • bob

    60% poll from the tory rag mail on sunday wow what a surprise

  • sunderlandcolin

    wonder if he put it on his expenses.

  • geronimo

    The simple fact is the only way to deal with these crooks called the utilities is to re nationalise them,forget the shareholders,they stole the companies usung that cow thatcher,no compensation until you recognise this Ed Milliband you will not be PM,if we can find 80 billion for the theiving bankers we can find it for our own energy companies which belong to us anyway,or does the Fat Queen Elizabeth own them as well as everything else

  • Steve Lawrence

    “David Cameron recently described the price freeze proposal as “the politics of the conman”.”
    Well, he should know…

  • Steve Bateman

    What. He couldn’t afford his bill?? He should be cut off.

  • SMITH

    LET EUROPE PAY FOR THE GREEN ENERGY SUBSIDIES.

    • fred

      And who pays the EU bills smarty pants?

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