Government ministers were accused yesterday of shifting the goalposts to make nearly one million poor people vanish from the official fuel poverty classification.

MPs and unions criticised the government's cynical vanishing trick as ministers unveiled timid plans to trim soaring fuel bills by a measly £1 per week.

Commons environmental audit committee chairwoman Joan Walley MP chastised the government for planning to reduce the number of people classed as fuel poor from 3.2m to 2.4m.