A QUARTER of a million people have pledged this month to not pay their energy bills — joining two million households who have fallen into debt on their electricity payments. 

December 1 marked the first day of Don’t Pay UK’s nationwide strike, touted as the biggest non-payment of bills since the poll tax in the 1980s. 

So far, a total of 257,491 people have signed up to the campaign’s pledge to cancel their direct debits in protest against fossil fuel firms’ bumper profits as millions struggle to keep warm this winter.