Scottish households will save £120 a year under Labour’s plans to freeze energy prices, Jim Murphy will claim today.
The Scottish party leader will say that only Labour is willing to tackle the energy companies, allowing prices to fall but not increase.
While out campaigning in Glasgow he is expected to challenge the SNP to stand up to the “vested interests” of the energy companies so that hard-pressed families will not be “ripped off”.
At the heart of Labour’s price freeze is the calculation it would save Scottish households and businesses £500million.
“The stark reality of Scotland 2015 is that some of our poorest families are choosing between heating and eating,” Mr Murphy is expected to say.
“That’s the result of five years of Tories austerity and eight years of an SNP government in Edinburgh pre-occupied with the constitution.
“Elections are about picking sides, not just voters but the parties themselves. On May 7 there is only one party siding with hard pressed families and standing against the vested interests of the energy companies and that’s the Labour party.
“A UK Labour government will freeze energy prices so they can fall but not rise. The big energy companies won’t like it but it’s time a UK government stood up for consumers, a Labour government will do exactly that.
“For all their bluster about making Labour bolder, the SNP are silent on the energy price freeze. This is yet another radical Labour policy that the SNP cannot and will not match.
“On May 7 a vote for Scottish Labour is a vote for a UK Labour government that will stand up to the energy companies and set us on the road to a fairer Scotland, a vote for the SNP simply sets us on the road to a second referendum. That’s not what Scotland needs or wants right now.”
Two years ago when Ed Miliband first put forward a freeze, Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said it was “completely unworkable”. He said when an “arbitrary prize freeze” was tried in California in 2000 is led to blackouts and a 800% increase in wholesale prices