PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer was told to apologise after Ofgem approved a surprise 6.4 per cent rise in average energy bills set to hit working families and pensioners the hardest yesterday.

Sir Keir was accused of breaking general election pledge to slash bills by £300 after the energy regulator announced a rise of £111 from April to £1,849 a year for the typical household.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the third consecutive increase in the cap on gas and electricity charges “is a cruel increase which is going to hit the elderly and low-paid workers the hardest.

“How can this be acceptable when energy companies are making billions in profits and millions of people are struggling to keep warm?

“The government should be making sure that everyone in the UK is able to stay warm, not making it harder.

“It can start by reversing its disastrous policy of cutting the winter fuel allowance and by returning key energy companies to public ownership, starting with the National Grid.”

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast said: “This increase underlines the fact the system is broken.

“We already have some of the highest energy costs in Europe.

“Further increases will hit both households and businesses.

“Today must act as a wake-up call to ministers: we must use our own resources rather than rely on increasingly expensive imports.”

The higher than expected price cap, which is updated every quarter, comes as a blow to the government’s election promise to bring down energy bills by “up to £300 by 2030.”

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn MP said: “During the election, the Labour Party promised voters it would cut energy bills by £300 but instead it has increased them three times — and they are now almost £300 higher.

“Keir Starmer must apologise to voters for breaking his promises — and urgently outline what emergency steps he will take to reverse these huge increases to household bills.”

The energy regulator said that the cap will affect about 22 million customers on standard variable tariffs, insisting that Britain’s reliance on international gas markets lead to volatile wholesale prices that continue to drive up bills.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This government is determined to do everything we can to protect people from the grip of fossil fuel markets.

“Expanding the Warm Home Discount can help protect millions of families from rising energy bills, offering support to consumers across the country.

“Alongside this, the way to deliver energy security and bring down bills for good is to deliver our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower with home-grown clean power that we in Britain control.”

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis questioned how the government will fund increases to the Warm Home Discount as he said that it is “crucial to provide support for vulnerable households struggling with energy costs now.”

Calling for £13.2 billion of support at the government’s upcoming Spending Review, he added: “The big question will be how do we pay for these improvements in support. Both Warm Home Discounts and debt relief are traditionally funded through our energy bills.

“Yet the energy industry makes billions of pounds in profit every year and it beggars belief that Ofgem is increasing the profit allowance for suppliers in the current climate.

“For now, the advice for households is to make the most of existing energy efficiency schemes and if customers do shop around for a lower energy bill, they must use their own energy usage on price comparison sites.”

Generation Rent warned that the rising bills will hit private renters the hardest, with more than a million currently in fuel poverty.

The campaign group’s research and policy manager Parissa Zand said: “Every rent increase and rise in energy costs pushes more and more renters to the brink. 

“Higher bills could be the difference between a child eating a proper dinner or an older renter being able to turn the heating on.”

National Energy Action policy director Peter Smith said: “The thought of a third successive and significant price cap rise will be unbearable for many of the people we try and help.”

Citizens Advice chief executive Dame Clare Moriarty said: “We’re particularly concerned about households with children, where more than one in three struggle to afford bills, rising to more than half of those on low incomes.”