Kemi Badenoch pledges to bring down cost of living

The Tory leader said it is time to start “thinking about families who are struggling for once” as she announced the party would axe carbon tax entirely.

It comes as people across the region are left fearing how they will heat their homes and businesses facing surging fuel costs.

Just this week, residents in Low Coniscliffe, who rely on oil to heat their homes due to lack of gas mains, said the costs had left them considering whether to sell up.

On a visit to Wilton International in Redcar on Thursday (April 2), Ms Badenock said the Conservatives’ cheap power plan would cut household energy bills by around £200 and deliver cheap, reliable power. 

She also argued Labour’s taxes were forcing factories to close, driving jobs overseas, and leaving the country dependent on higher cost imports. 

Ms Badenock argued that, when her party was in power at the time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Conservatives helped deal with rising fuel costs.

She said: “We want to see a situation where the conflict is de-escalated, and we drill our own oil and gas in the North Sea rather than constantly relying on supplies from all over the place. 

“Gas, for example, if we allowed the drilling today, we could pump 1.6 million households with new gas from the Jackdaw and Rosebank gas fields. 


“That’s something that Labour is saying no to. That is why I asked the Prime Minister last week at PMQs to allow that drilling to happen. 

“We can’t fix every single problem, but we can stop making things worse. 
Labour is going to make things worse. It’s planning a fuel duty hike in September, the last thing anybody needs.

“That’s why I’m saying they need to stop that hiking field duty. Let’s start thinking about families who are struggling for once, and bring down the cost of living.”

Earlier this week, Stanley Travel and Durham City Transport Ltd revealed that spiralling fuel costs left them with an added bill of £8,000 to £10,000 per week. 

Meanwhile, Terry Naisbitt, general manager at Durham City Transport Ltd, said he’d also been grappling with an extra £10k in costs for fuel and had “no choice” but to increase prices. 

The Conservatives had previously announced plans to remove the carbon tax from electricity generation, but today announced it would “lift the burden” on British industry too. 

It argued that British manufacturers had been left competing at a disadvantage – and that jobs were disappearing due to Labour’s “refusal” to capitalise on North Sea resources. 

The party said its cheap power plan would remove VAT from household energy bills for the next three years, providing immediate relief for consumers with an average saving of £94 per household per year.