The new Labour government has failed to confirm to FactCheck that it stands by a key election pledge to cut energy bills by up to £300 – despite the prime minister saying he was committed to the figure just last week.

Let’s take a look.

In opposition and now in power, Labour has claimed that its plans for net zero – including the creation of a “publicly owned clean energy company”, GB Energy – will “lower bills”.

The question is: by how much?

Before the election, Keir Starmer said that his policies would “help families save up to £300 off their energy bills”. The claimed savings would kick in from 2030.

But this number was missing from the official announcement of the GB Energy plans on 25 July.

A journalist from the Times challenged Keir Starmer on the figure after a speech he gave that day.

The reporter asked: “During the election campaign Labour suggested bills would be brought down around £300 a year by 2030 by your net zero energy plans. Do you stand by that figure? How much can households expect to save?”.

Sir Keir replied: “Yes I do. I stand by everything in our manifesto and one of the things I made clear in the election campaign is I wouldn’t make a single promise or commitment that I didn’t think we could deliver in government.”

But after repeated email requests from FactCheck to explain how the £300 figure was calculated, and whether the government still stands by it, the energy department appeared to back away from the number.

The department told FactCheck in an email on 1 August: “We stand by our commitment to lower bills. And we stand by the fact that independent modelling said that savings could be up to £300 when comparing prices before the election to a 2030 clean power system.”

At first glance, this might look like the government is still endorsing that £300 figure. And it is true that independent modelling said there could be savings of up to £300 a year by 2030 from “a clean power system”.

But crucially, the “clean power system” that was used in that independent modelling is not what Labour has planned.

As the fact-checking charity Full Fact reported before the election, the analysis, carried out by the energy think tank Ember, looked at what would happen if the UK managed to hit the previous government’s environmental targets – not Labour’s net zero policies.

And as FullFact also noted, the £300 figure also uses an old energy price cap to make the comparison. The cap has since fallen, meaning the calculation is now out of date.

(Image credit: Betty Laura Zapata/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)