Where were local MPs for Warm Homes vote?

3.17.00pm GMT Wed 25th Mar 2009

Fuel poverty: Lib Dems have criticised Tory and Labour MPs for being missing in action

Kensington and Chelsea Liberal Democrats are asking where local MPs Malcolm Rifkind and Karen Buck were when MPs voted on a new parliamentary bill aimed at ending fuel poverty. The Bill was just 11 votes short of the number it needed to make progress.

Just one in ten Conservative MPs and one in fourteen Labour MPs were in Parliament to support the Bill on 20th March. Nearly three quarters of Lib Dems were present but it was not enough to stop the Government blocking the Bill.

Liberal Democrat campaigner Carol Caruana said: "The Fuel Poverty Bill was 'talked out' by the Government on Friday because not enough MPs turned up to support it. It needed 100 MPs but it only got 89. This is a very local issue for us. According to Consumer Focus, almost 15% of households in Kensington & Chelsea live in fuel poverty.

Due to boundary changes, the Conservative Sir Malcolm Rifkind will be standing at the next election to be elected as the MP for all of Kensington, including the Northern wards previously represented by Labour's Karen Buck. This is a major issue throughout the Borough but particularly in the North where there is a greater proportion of low and fixed income households.

"With such a narrow margin of failure it is really disappointing that our local MPs were not in Parliament to support this important Bill.

"The Bill, which is being proposed by Liberal Democrat MP David Heath, would deliver a massive home insulation programme which would halve the energy needed to heat the average home. And it would end the scandal of those who use pre-pay meters - generally the least well-off - paying higher rates for their gas and electricity.

"Our best hope now is to put as much pressure as possible on the Government to change their minds and support the Bill. Without government support I am afraid it looks doomed."

Campaign groups such as Consumer Focus and Age Concern have condemned the Government for blocking the Bill's progress. Help the Aged have said that, "Millions of older people… will be devastated and dismayed by this result."