The Chancellor urged households to cut their usage by 15 percent, telling the Treasury Committee that “everyone” will need to play their part.
Jeremy Hunt is facing anger from Tory MPs after the Chancellor told households to cut their individual energy consumption.
The Chancellor told the Committee: “In the long run we’re going need everyone to help us crack this problem if we’re not going to have a huge additional burden on taxpayers which ultimately will lead to the kind of high taxes I certainly don’t believe are desirable in the long run.
“We will always be there to help poorer households, the way we do that will change.
“But for most people, we need you to play your part in reducing our energy dependency on what Putin chooses to do in Ukraine, that’s why we’ve got this national ambition to reduce energy consumption by 15 per cent.
“We’re a couple of per cent higher [than the EU] but other countries are doing the same kind of thing.
“That isn’t just at a national level but that’s for every household.”
Conservative MP Marco Longhi told Express.co.uk it is a “ridiculous thing to suggest”.
Meanwhile, Sir John Redwood said the Government should “concentrate on cutting energy waste in government itself”.
Responding to Mr Hunt’s comments, Mr Longhi, a member of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, told Express.co.uk: “I and my family are consuming less energy.
“I am very lucky. I am on an MP’s salary. We should all join in with saving energy it’s the right thing to do. But I’m not going to say to people who simply cannot do that – the elderly and the vulnerable – that they should be using less energy.”
Writing on Twitter, Sir John Redwood said there is “no need for Government to waste more money on telling the rest of us to save money on energy as if we were not doing that.
“They should concentrate on cutting energy waste in Government itself.
“Have they turned down and turned off in all their offices and buildings when they can?”
The above summary was derived from the story linked below
Source: ‘Patronising’ Hunt facing Tory MP fury as Chancellor tells households to cut energy usage
