The Member of Parliament for Birkenhead is asking local residents to have their say on the energy crisis by completing a short survey about the impact of rising energy prices on their standard of living.
The move comes ahead of 1 October, when the energy price cap is set to rise to at least £3582 a year. The increase has been described as “tragic news” by money saving expert Martin Lewis and has led experts to warn that 35 million people – just under half of the population – could be plunged into fuel poverty.
Meanwhile, Energy companies continue to report record profits. British Gas owner Centrica last month reported that its half-year profits were up five times on 2021. Shell is understood to have made £9 billion in the last three months alone.
Liz Truss, the presumptive frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race, last night made a rare intervention on the cost of living crisis only to defend the energy companies and claim that rising profits should not be considered “dirty and evil”.
Speaking to birkenhead.news, Mick Whitley said, “My constituents are bracing themselves for the most difficult winter in a lifetime. They’ve already been hit hardest of all by rising energy and food prices this year and raising the energy price cap again will plunge many of them into absolute destitution.”
He continued, “This is an unprecedented national crisis, but our Government is missing in action and both of our country’s potential future leaders are grotesquely out of touch with the reality facing millions of hardworking people. They need to understand the scale of the catastrophe unfolding in towns like Birkenhead. That’s why I’m asking my constituents to fill out this survey, to tell me more about the challenges they’re facing.”
The Labour MP wrote a “personal appeal” to both candidates earlier this week, calling for urgent action to tackle the cost of living crisis. He has also today joined a number of Labour MPs and Peers in calling for the urgent recall of Parliament.
The survey takes two minutes to complete and can be found here: https://forms.gle/uD6LeewFmtJYJBPU6 
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