Sir Keir Starmer has called for a “national mission” to insulate millions of homes across the UK, as he claimed that Labour is “leading” on the cost-of-living crisis.
The Labour leader, who on Monday visited a housing development in Walthamstow, also hit out at the Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss after reports that she is not planning to ask the independent Office for Budget Responsibility for a forecast ahead of the measures she is planning for next month.
Labour has set out plans to upgrade 19 million homes across the country over the next decade in a major heat-saving project the party says would save households over £11 billion over three years.
Last week saw Labour write to Boris Johnson, as well as the two Tory leadership contenders, demanding that Parliament returns early in order to tackle soaring energy bills.
It came as Sir Keir sought to steal a march Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, unveiling a “fully costed” £29 billion plan to freeze the cap at the current level of £1,971 for six months from October.
Speaking on Monday, Sir Keir said: “We need a national mission to insulate homes, that’s a longer-term issue. We called for that a year ago now, if the Government had done that, we’d have the best part of two million homes insulated.”
He said that his party’s insulation plans offers a “longer-term answer” to the energy crisis.
“Instead of that, we have got a zombie Government and that is the root of the problem.”
He also attacked Ms Truss, seen as the frontrunner in the contest to replace Mr Johnson, following reports that that she is not planning to ask the independent Office for Budget Responsibility for a forecast ahead of a promised emergency budget.
The Labour leader said: “The OBR is there to make sure that money is spent wisely and properly. So of course you need the OBR in place for that.
“That is why there has been such a reaction to Liz Truss’ proposal that she is going to just put that to one side.”
He said people wanted to know what the Government was going to do about the cost-of-living crisis, with Labour “leading” on the issue.
“Labour is leading on this, we have said freeze those bills this winter, make sure people don’t pay any more for their energy.”
