Confusion about the Government's plans to tackle soaring energy bills continued to mount as Mr Davey sidestepped questions about David Cameron's statement yesterday.
Labour claimed the Energy Secretary had known nothing about the proposal until it was sprung on him during Prime Minister's Questions, when Mr Cameron said there would be legislation to require companies to give consumers the lowest tariffs available.
Neither Downing Street nor Mr Davey's officials have been able to provide any details about the plan, and the Energy Secretary pointedly failed to even refer to it when questioned by the BBC today.
He instead referred to moves to require energy companies to inform customers of the lowest tariffs available to them.
"I've been working with the Deputy Prime Minister and others, working with the energy companies, to try to drive more competition, to get them to agree that they will tell their customers what are the best available tariffs, so customers can save money," said Mr Davey.
"These high energy prices are causing lots of problems and they are at the top of my list of priorities."
Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint said the Prime Minister's statement had thrown energy into confusion, adding: "It caused chaos in the energy industry and I have to say it left his own ministers at a loss as to what energy policy actually is."
She added: "For the Government to spend a day pretending they have a policy they have no intention of implementing is no way to run the country. It is like something out of The Thick of It."
Mr Davey was speaking to a CBI event this morning on the subject of energy market reform, but his speech did not feature the Prime Minister's proposal.
During questions afterwards, the Energy Secretary pointed instead to voluntary agreements secured earlier this year, under which the major energy firms would tell customers what the best available tariffs were.
"We are looking at how that can be built on, and how we can drive switching arrangements. We will be legislating for those arrangements in the forthcoming Energy Bill," he said.
Labour forced an urgent question on the matter in the Commons, where Energy Minister John Hayes also stopped short of endorsing Mr Cameron's proposal or claiming that his department had been forewarned.
He told MPs there were "a number of options" being considered and voluntary arrangements announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in April would be "evaluated to see if we should make the legislation binding".
He added: "This is a complicated area which will discuss with the industry, consumer groups and the regulator in order to work through the detail."
Asked whether he knew about Mr Cameron's announcement in advance, he said: "Of course we understand what the Prime Minister was considering because we have been debating and discussing the provisions of the Energy Bill for months."
He added: "We will use the Energy Bill to get people lower tariffs and of course there are different options to be considered in the process."
Yesterday's announcement follows a string of above-inflation price hikes by major energy companies in recent days. It is intended to tackle concerns that many householders, at a time of rising fuel costs, are already paying more than they need to because of the bewildering number of tariffs available.
The Federation of Small Businesses warned that the move could damage competition in the energy market.
Its national chairman, John Walker, said: "The Prime Minister's determination to tackle rising energy bills is very welcome. We want to see plans for the big six energy companies to put their customers on the cheapest tariff extended to micro-businesses too.
"However, there is a very real risk that forcing energy companies to put customers on the cheapest tariff could lead to price fixing and erode what little competition there is in the market."
Asked whether DECC was informed in advance of Mr Cameron's announcement yesterday, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: "As we said yesterday, there have been discussions on this issue for quite some time.
"The Prime Minister set out our intentions at PMQs yesterday... He set out that we want people to have the lowest tariffs for their energy bills.
"We want people to take advantage of the lower deals and we know that only very few people currently do that, so we are going to use the Energy Bill to get people the lowest tariffs."
At a regular media briefing in Westminster, the spokeswoman declined to clarify whether energy companies would be compelled to transfer customers on to the lowest tariffs - as the Prime Minister seemed to be suggesting yesterday - or whether they would simply be told to inform customers of payment schemes on offer.
And the spokeswoman indicated that the Government was still at the stage of considering options, and would not unveil its final proposals until the publication of the Energy Bill in a few weeks' time.
"We are going to set out the details in the Energy Bill," she said. "The point is to ensure that people pay the lowest possible tariff.
"We are going to look at the various options, set those out in the Bill and put the obligation on the energy companies to offer the lowest tariffs to more people."
A senior Labour source said the confusion was of Mr Cameron's making and reflected his "flaws" as Prime Minister.
"He does not do the detail, he does not do the hard work, and that is the reason why we have ended up in the chaotic situation we have today," the source said.
"This is a mess of the Prime Minister's own making."
Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: "The Government's energy policy is now as confusing as British Gas tariffs.
"Even if what Cameron announced yesterday was actual policy, it would fail to protect consumers from higher bills. Until the Government reduces our reliance on gas, the cheapest tariff will still be an expensive tariff."
Ros Altmann, director-general of Saga, which represents older people, backed the Prime Minister's plan.
"Many people, including millions of pensioners, are not on the internet and may struggle to find the best deals on their energy tariffs. Any move which helps people obtain the best deal would be very warmly welcome," she said.
"We would urge the Government to iron out the details of these plans quickly as we approach another potentially harsh winter."
The CBI, which represents British business, warned today that the Government needed to present a unified message to provide stability and certainty for investors.
Deputy director-general Neil Bentley said: "We are seeing UK energy policy get increasingly political. Are you for green or for growth? Are you for renewables or for gas? Fruitless debates over these false choices can seem like they're just noising off, but they really matter.
"With every new story that adds to the sense of uncertainty, I hear of more phone calls from overseas head offices to UK executives asking whether it is worth putting further work into scoping out possible investments in the UK."
Dr Bentley said that Mr Cameron's statement had been "a bit of a surprise" because it was "not something that's been discussed before".
He told BBC Radio 4's The World At One that the idea "runs completely against competition and the marketplace", adding: "It's up to the relationship between suppliers and their customers to decide what's the best tariff for them."
He said the confusion could put off investors in the UK.
"What this actually does is create a lot more uncertainty for companies who are looking to invest in the UK and investing in our energy infrastructure and new power stations and that's not good because we need companies to be looking to the UK to invest billions of pounds which are going to help create jobs in construction and engineering.
"That's the sort of messaging we need coming out of government, not scare stories or stories about uncertainty around the Government's commitment to the market in the UK, because that's what puts off private sector investors in the UK and abroad and that's exactly what we don't want at the moment."
John Walker, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "The Prime Minister's determination to tackle rising energy bills is very welcome. We want to see plans for the big six energy companies to put their customers on the cheapest tariff extended to micro-businesses too.
"However, there is a very real risk that forcing energy companies to put customers on the cheapest tariff could lead to price-fixing and erode what little competition there is in the market.
"What we really need is for Ofgem to deliver a truly competitive market with its ongoing Retail Market Review work. Complicated tariffs, making it difficult to switch and rolling over contracts from one year to the next have plagued small businesses' relationship with their energy suppliers for too long and we need to see effective action now."
Consumer group Which? urged Mr Cameron not to backtrack on his statement to the Commons.
Executive director Richard Lloyd said: "The Prime Minister must stick to the promise he made in Parliament to legislate so energy companies have to give the lowest tariff to their customers.
"Just giving people information on the lowest tariff is not enough when trust is at an all-time low in the industry and switching levels are falling. Which? has been pressing the Government for years to make sure people get a better deal so we must now see these words turned into action."
