PLANS for a new energy regulator with the power to pull the plug on companies which rip-off customers will be unveiled by Labour today.

Shadow energy minister Caroline Flint said the new regulator could revoke any energy companies’ licence as a last resort.

The penalty would be used against privateers when they commit “serious and deliberate breaches of their licence conditions which harm the interests of consumers.”

Ms Flint said it would stop the abuses that continue despite current regulator Ofgem handing out 30 fines worth £87 million since 2001.

She said: “Where firms fail to meet these standards there must be tough and decisive action.

“Too often energy companies seem to view the regulator’s fines as a cost of doing business — not as a warning to get their act together.”

Ms Flint will pin the blame on Tory Prime Minister David Cameron during her speech in marginal seat Reading West.

“On David Cameron’s watch, energy bills in Britain have risen twice as fast as inflation, four times faster than wages and faster than almost any other country in the developed world,” she will say.

“Households cannot afford another five years of this.”

A Tory spokesman said: “All Labour offer is more of the same — higher taxes and unworkable gimmicks which will put prices up in the long run.”

But polling by Tory donor Lord Ashcroft found Labour making major inroads into the nasty party’s traditional territory.

It showed Labour is set to snatch seats such as Lincoln, Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport as well as holding previously marginal constituencies such as Hampstead and Kilburn with an increased majority.