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.

Unite union general secretary Len McCluskey commented: "The government's energy policy puts the con into the Con-Dem government.

"By a few devious taps on a keyboard they are moving the goal posts, making close to a million households struggling with fuel poverty invisible."

Government amendments to the Energy Bill will scrap the classifiction of a family as suffering fuel poverty if it spends more than 10 per cent of income to maintain "adequate" warmth.

Instead, households would only be regarded as suffering hardship if they have "above average fuel costs" leaving them with "a residual income below the poverty line."

Energy Secretary Ed Davey claimed he had achieved a "serious, workable package" to save households an average £50 a year on energy bills.

Bills will be shaved by around £35 per customer through reductions in direct green levies which pay for insulation and energy-saving schemes.

In future, these measures will be financed by a £500m programme funded from general taxation, and a so-called "clampdown" on tax avoidance.

Some green energy targets will be "slowed down."

Other measures agreed by companies and government will trim a further £17 from bills.

Labour leader Ed Miliband accused the government of indulging in "smoke and mirrors" and cosy deals with the big six energy companies instead of freezing prices, while shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint pointed out that energy bills would still rise by an average of £70.

National Pensioners Convention general secretary Dot Gibson reported a "surge of opinion" in favour of public ownership of energy companies at pensioners' meetings around Britain.

Communist Party general secretary Rob Griffiths demanded: "Labour should catch up with public opinion and aim to take this vital industry out of the hands of the greedy energy vultures."