The private polling behind Labour’s energy bill swagger

A select committee meeting with the Big Six firms would attract attention in any year when the companies had announced such eye-watering price rises. But it is the political frisson added by Ed Miliband’s energy price freeze pledge that makes this afternoon’s hearing quite so interesting. Labour had a swing in its step anyway as it feels it has successfully spooked the Coalition parties, but it carried out private polling last week, seen first by Coffee House, that underlined this. 70% of voters surveyed by YouGov for Labour thought the government should introduce a price freeze, with 17% rejecting it. When asked whether the the freeze was workable, 68% said it was, against 20% who said that forcing the energy companies to freeze bills couldn’t work because the costs would be passed on to consumers.

Labour strategists are particularly happy with two findings: the first that 51% of Conservative voters think Miliband’s price freeze plan is workable, against 39% who do not, and the second being that 39% of current Ukip supporters think the Tories are attacking the freeze as unworkable because they are taking the side of the energy companies.