‘You see the lack of compassion’: anger at Tories in fuel-poor Wolverhampton

City 15 miles from Tory conference has England's highest fuel poverty rate and is setting up warm banks for winter

• Politics live: latest updates

Never in my career did I expect to be creating warm banks," said Ian Brookfield, the Labour leader of Wolverhampton council. I'm embarrassed that in this country we're having to do this."

Just 15 miles from where the Conservative party has gathered for its annual conference, people in Wolverhampton are facing the highest rates of fuel poverty of any local authority in England. Compared with a national average of 13%, Wolverhampton has a fuel poverty rate of 22.4%.