Government 'isn't advising people to reduce energy use' but minister refuses to rule out rationing

The government is not advising people to reduce their overall energy consumption while refusing to rule out rationing in the future, a minister has said.

Climate minister Graham Stuart said that the government is avoiding looking at reducing overall use and is instead supporting the energy regulator to provide incentives for businesses and consumers to cut peak-time energy demand if required. During a series of broadcast interviews on Friday morning, he said the UK's energy security is "pretty strong".

He also claimed that National Grid energy blackouts are "unlikely" during the winter, and shot down a report in The Times which claimed Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg signed off on a £15 million public information campaign about using less energy this winter which the Prime Minister ruled out.

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Speaking to Sky News, Mr Stuart said: "I don’t recognise that. We are in an iterative process of policy development and ideas, and we come to a conclusion. The idea there was some highly developed campaign… passionately devoted to and Number 10 nixed it, I don’t recognise that.”

It comes after the National Grid Electricity System Operator said households and businesses on Thursday that they may face three-hour outages to ensure the grid doesn't collapse. While Mr Stuart said such a scenario was "unlikely", he refused to exclude the possibility of energy rationing throughout the winter when pressed on LBC.

In August, Prime Minister Liz Truss was asked during her leadership campaign whether she could rule out energy rationing, to which she replied: "I do rule that out." When asked about the same policy, Mr Stuart said: "The