Natalie Don MSP has expressed deep concerns about increasing energy bills which are becoming a nightmare for people in Renfrewshire and across Scotland, as promises about cheaper fuel costs made by anti-independence and pro-Brexit campaigners are shattered.
With energy bills soaring, the MSP for Renfrewshire North and West has criticised Boris Johnson for breaking his pledge to make energy bills cheaper after Brexit and condemned the Better Together campaign for claiming ahead of the last independence referendum that Scotland benefits from lower energy bills by being part of the United Kingdom.
The MSP has also added her voice to SNP calls for the UK Government to introduce an energy payment to help lower income families cope with the increased prices.
Average household energy bills have increased despite the UK Government projecting in 2014 that prices would fall by around £48 in 2020, and costs are set to soar even higher from October just as the colder weather starts to bite.
Ofgem estimates a typical gas and electricity customer will face an increase of £139, from £1,138 to £1,277 per year.
Natalie Don MSP condemns anti-independence and Brexit campaigners for breaking promises on energy prices.
Natalie Don MSP said: “Many low-income families in Renfrewshire and across Scotland are set to pay a hefty price for their gas and electricity this autumn and winter, and my heart goes out to those who will be forced to choose between heating and eating.
“Boris Johnson has clearly broken the pledge he made a month before the EU referendum about Brexit reducing energy bills for everyone, and the No campaign’s big anti-independence scare story claiming energy prices are lower for people in Scotland as part of the UK was, like so many of their dystopian assertions, found to be evidently bogus.
“The UK Government should take urgent action by introducing an energy payment to help lower income families who are already struggling to survive due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and callous welfare cuts.
“There is absolutely no way that people in Renfrewshire or anywhere else in energy-rich Scotland should be sitting shivering or starving, and the Tories at Westminster should be ashamed if they fail to protect the poorest in our communities from horrendous suffering caused by fuel poverty during the colder months ahead.”