Boris Johnson repeatedly refused on Thursday to rule out a windfall tax on energy giants.
The Prime Minister demanded that the fuel companies boost investment as part of Britain’s drive towards being a net-zero economy and to boost energy security.
But he is coming under growing pressure from business chiefs and MPs to impose a windfall tax to pay for measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis for millions of people struggling with their weekly budgets.
Mr Johnson was asked repeatedly in an interview on LBC Radio about a windfall tax, and while he said he did not like it he noticeably did not rule it out.
His stance came amid reports that the Treasury is now re-examining the option of imposing such a levy.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reported to be drawing up a new package of support to be announced in August when it is expected to be clearer how much energy bills will rise by in the autumn, with any change in the cap.
In the interview, presenter Nick Ferrari asked: “Just on a domestic point, there is an argument that, given the extraordinary amounts of money that you’re spending on Ukraine, which many people applaud, you need to look at some way of getting money back in the UK, the so-called windfall taxes. You have the one boss of one company saying they’re a cash machine. Profits in their billions. Come on, are you ruling out windfall taxes, Prime Minister?
Mr Johnson: “The disadvantage with those sorts of taxes is that they deter investment in the very things that we… they need to be investing in new technology, in new energy supply.”
Mr Ferrari responded: But the bosses say it won’t deter them on investing.”
The Prime Minister said: “Well, you know, then we’ll have to look it....”
Mr Ferrari intervened: “So are you saying you will look at windfall tax?”
Mr Johnson replied: “What I’m saying is I want them to make those investments. That’s the most important thing. They’ve got to be making investments in new energy supply for our country. Well here we are in Finland. We’ve just been in Sweden. Those guys, they’ve done brilliantly. They’ve they got nuclear power in Sweden in the way that we don’t have in the UK. They got hydro. They got all sorts of resilience that we don’t have. We’ve got to build in that resilience. I want those big energy companies to make those investments.”
Mr Ferrari pressed him one more time: “Just finally, are you ruling them out?”
The Prime Minister said: “I don’t like them. I didn’t think they’re the right thing. I don’t think they’re the right way forward. I want those companies to make big, big investments.”
