A Bristol MP has criticised the Government who last night voted down a Labour bid to have a windfall tax on oil and gas giants - which the party claims could save households £600.
Labour MP for Bristol West and shadow leader of the house of commons, Thangam Debbonaire slammed the Tories for "putting the profits of oil companies before people" as MPs rejected the move by 310 votes to 248. Ms Debbonaire said the Tories showed “their true colours by refusing to help people facing extreme hardship.”
Labour first called for the windfall tax on January 9, to fund a VAT cut on home energy bills and expand and increase the Warm Homes Discount. Such a step would save families struggling with soaring costs up to £600 off their bills.
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Ms Debbonaire highlighted in her blog the billions in oil company profits that could go towards helping struggling families: “The cost of living crisis comes at a time when oil and gas companies are making record profits," she wrote. "BP and Shell alone have made £12.37 billion of profit in the first three months of 2022.
“Projected profits of North Sea oil and gas firms in 2022/23 are higher than the combined rise in energy bills for every household in the UK.” Last week the Bristol MP told Channel 4 News that “bosses of oil and gas companies have been saying themselves that they’ve got more money that they know what to do with.”
Ms Debbonaire said that the money could have gone towards people in Bristol who are facing hardship. Ms Debbonaire said: “The Tory government had a real opportunity today to help solve the cost of living crisis. While people across Bristol are skipping meals or unable to pay bills, the Tories opted to protect oil companies’ profits instead.
“As the cost of energy has increased rapidly, Labour has repeatedly asked the government to help people with their rocketing bills. They could do this by taxing the sky-high windfall profits of oil and gas companies.
“We put this windfall tax to a vote today and the Tories voted it down. For months now I’ve spoken about this in the House of Commons, as it would help people in Bristol who are facing real hardship.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has hinted the government could perform a U-turn in future, however, as he said “no option is off the table” when it came to the levy. He added that only if oil and gas giants do not invest their profits back into “growth, job and energy security” could the policy could be introduced.
Conservative former minister Robert Halfon and Mel Stride, Tory chairman of the Treasury Committee, both indicated support for a windfall tax, with the former labelling oil company bosses “the new oligarchs”.
Mr Halfon told MPs: “The oil bosses are earning multimillion-pound salaries and getting multimillion-pound bonuses, they are in essence in my view the new oligarchs and I would urge him to consider both a windfall tax on the oil companies, which we can then use to cut taxes for the lower paid or cut energy bills, and also introduce a pump watch monitor to make sure that there is fair competition, that consumers get a fair deal at the pumps.”
Mr Stride added: “We have heard of the windfall tax in great detail today. I would support that.”
He added: “I do think the arguments that he (Mr Miliband) has put forward are generally sensible, and I’m very pleased in turn that the Chancellor has indicated that the door is at least partially open, albeit caveated on the investment performance of the companies concerned.”
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