Andy Burnham must turn his warm words and broken promises into lower energy bills

Now, after seven increases, millions of households are facing the highest energy charges in three years, with the average household paying over £1700.

Some people may dismiss the phrase "choosing between heating and eating" as a political slogan.

But for far too many people, it is a painful reality. Last winter, I met with constituents for whom this was not a soundbite. They were making impossible choices that nobody in a modern, prosperous country should ever have to make.

One conversation, in particular, has stayed with me.

I met an elderly lady who lived alone. To many of us, watching television is a simple pastime, something we barely think about.

For her, it was much more than that. The television brought people and voices into her home, providing her with company and a connection to the outside world. It helped to ease the loneliness that can so often come with living alone.

Yet she told me she had started cutting back on the hours she watched television. Why, because she was frightened. Frightened of what her electricity bill would say when it arrived through her letterbox.

So she found herself spending more time sitting in a cold, dark and silent house, worrying about costs that she couldn’t control.

Sadly, she was not alone. I heard similar stories time and again, of people constantly calculating and worrying.

As another winter approaches, there are households looking ahead not with hope, but with dread. They are wondering how they will cope, and what they will have to cut back on next.

That reality is heartbreaking.

Behind every statistic about bills and prices are real people, living real lives, all carrying worries that weigh heavily on them every single day.

Andy Burnham must now turn his warm words and broken promises into lower bills and do it quickly. Families need action, because for many of them, the time to get a grip on this growing crisis is running out.