This afternoon Labour has its debate on forcing energy companies to pass on lower oil prices to their customers. The potency of the political attack has been blunted rather by the party’s admission that its energy price freeze is in fact a cap, rather than an endless promise that no matter how fabulously low prices already are, Labour will freeze them. But the Opposition Day debate is designed to suggest that the Tories don’t care about people’s energy bills. The motion reads:
‘That this House notes the policy of the Opposition to freeze energy prices until 2017, ensuring that prices can fall but not rise; and calls on the Government to bring forward fast-track legislation immediately to put a statutory duty on the energy regulator for Great Britain to ensure that energy suppliers pass on price cuts to consumers when wholesale costs fall, if suppliers fail to act.’
That is a motion written so that the government cannot support it. It starts by talking about the Opposition, which immediately sends everyone back to tribal positions, and then proposes something that the Conservatives think will damage the energy market by adding even more government intervention.
Labour types knows this: it’s not that those drafting its motions are being clumsy. What strategists want is for the Tories to vote against the motion so that they can then say ‘the Tories voted against giving you lower energy bills’. Which might be true if you think government intervention in the energy market is something we should see more of, or might not be true if you think that intervention pushes up costs.
Either way, the point worth remembering is that even if every MP present in Westminster trooped through the lobbies with Labour to support the motion, it wouldn’t make any difference at all because this is an Opposition Day debate which is not binding on the government. Which also means that the debate may be poorly-attended. So if you hear that ‘the Tories voted against giving you lower energy bills’ or see a picture comparing the attendance at a debate on energy prices with the apparent attendance at a ‘pay debate’, you’ll know to take it with the sort of seasoning that many political claims require.
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