LABOUR have been told to close the loopholes in the windfall tax and use it to end cuts to the Winter Fuel Payments.
It comes as oil giant BP has published results which show eye-watering profits of £1.75 billion in the third quarter of 2024.
The FTSE 100 company reported this was a drop in profits when compared with the same period last year as faltering global demand for oil hit BP’s refining business.
However, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie has called on Keir Starmer’s (below) party to “tax wealth properly”.
“All over our country there are households and families dreading a long, cold winter while fossil fuel giants and polluters are making a killing,” he said.
“Shamefully, the Labour Government has chosen to cut the Winter Fuel Payment, plunging hundreds of thousands of pensioners into fuel poverty while companies like BP are celebrating obscene levels of profit.
“We can’t continue with business as usual if we are to have any kind of liveable future.
“It is time to tax that wealth properly and use it to lift people out of poverty, make the transformative investment we need in green energy and finally break the link between fossil fuel prices and household bills.”
Elsewhere, executive director of Uplift - which supports a transition away from oil and gas - Tessa Khan said: "These profits are a good reminder that, despite complaints by the oil and gas industry that they are too heavily taxed, companies are in reality awash with cash.
"It is absolutely right that they pay their fair share while the UK transitions away from expensive oil and gas.
"BP's abandoning of clean energy and climate targets shows that it is operating with no regard for the public interest or the added costs that people in this country are now incurring, both on their energy bills and the impacts of climate change.
"Why should we have to pay for extra flood defences, or UK farmers be forced to cover the costs of poor harvests, when the companies driving these costs are raking in billions."
Labour previously voted for cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment in a move which is expected to strip millions of pensioners of cash used to help pay their bills.
The Scottish Government then subsequently said it had been left with “no choice” but to end universal fuel payments north of the Border.
The National has approached the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for comment.
