Fears Britons will disconnect their own gas and electrics over soaring energy bills
Warning comes as energy price cap rises to an eyewatering £3,549
Thousands of Britons struggling to pay their energy bills could resort to disconnecting their gas and electricity supplies if further support is not made available to cover the soaring cost of living, a government adviser has warned.
Caroline Flint, chair of the committee on fuel poverty and a former minister, said the energy crisis could become so dire for the worst off that they may avoid cooking food to save on their bills.
It comes as Ofgem confirmed in its latest announcement on Friday that the energy price cap has risen to £3,549 for the typical household - an increase of 80 per cent.
The rise, which comes into effect from 1 October, was higher than previously forecast. The cap is set to increase again in January to an estimated £5,387 before soaring further still to more than £6,500 by April.
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Ms Flint, the former Labour MP for Don Valley in South Yorkshire, told BBC Radio 4 Today that the fear is not so much that people will be disconnected by energy companies "but that they will disconnect themselves".
"They will not turn on their heating or they may not have cooked food because they see that as wasting energy," she added.
Following Ofgem's announcement, Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert, warned that "people will die this winter" because they will choose not to heat their homes due to the price hike, as he described the cost of living crisis as a "genuine catastrophe".
The government has announced a financial support package to help with gas and electricity bills but campaigners have warned that the measures do not go far enough, adding that millions of people will be pushed into fuel poverty.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and favourite to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader and prime minister, has vowed to offer "immediate support" to help households if enters No 10 Downing Street, although the details of her plan have not been fully fleshed out.
Rishi Sunak, her rival in the leadership contest, has also pledged to provide more support for those who are most in need. He said that people can judge him on his "track record" as chancellor, pointing to the package of support he announced for people to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
"It was acknowledged as being commensurate with the scale of the challenge, targeted at the people most in need," Mr Sunak told broadcasters.
"That is my track record in grappling with this issue. I moved quickly as chancellor and this will be my immediate priority as prime minister and I'd like to try and do the same thing and make sure that we protect the most vulnerable as much as we can from this significant increase in bills."
Labour is calling on whoever wins the race to replace Mr Johnson to freeze energy bills after leader Keir Starmer set out the party's £29bn plan to tackle the crisis.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said: "This is incredibly worrying and will strike fear in the heart of many families. We cannot wait any longer to act. This is a national emergency.
"The Tories must freeze energy bills now so households don't pay a penny more in winter."
Jonathan Brearley, the Ofgem chief executive, said: "All of us with the government need to get ahead of this problem and manage it on behalf of customers because, as you say, the outlook for winter without any action looks very difficult indeed."
He insisted that it was not the role of the price cap to subsidise energy bills.
"The price cap was never there to say that we can somehow subsidise energy or reduce energy below the cost of which companies have to pay to buy.
"So yes, it does need external influence - it needs government, the regulator, the industry and NGOs all to work together to find a solution to this," he told Today.
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