For once, just do the right thing
TORY MPs last night torpedoed a bid to hand struggling families a £600 lifeline from a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
The Commons voted by 310 to 248 to block Labour’s bid to amend the Queen’s Speech, imposing a £2billion levy on fossil fuel firms.
The move would have bolstered the budgets of the hardest-up households amid the cost of living crisis.
Last night’s vote came after more than four and a half hours of debate and pleas from Opposition MPs.
In a brutal personal attack, Shadow Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband accused Chancellor Rishi Sunak of “failing in your duty to the people of this country”.
Mr Miliband told the Commons: “What makes him even more culpable is that there is something that could help staring him right in the face, where the case has become unanswerable, where the Government has run out of excuses, where oil and gas producers are making billions – a windfall tax.”
The Chancellor insisted he did not believe windfall taxes were a simple and easy answer to every problem.
PROFITS
But, refusing to rule out a one-off levy, he added: “What we want to see is energy companies who have made extraordinary profits at a time of acutely elevated prices investing those profits back into British jobs, growth and energy security.
“If that doesn’t happen soon then no option is off the table.”
Shell made £7.3bn in the first quarter of the year, while BP’s profits more than doubled to £4.9bn.
And households are paying the price, with the average annual bill soaring to £1,971.
Robert Halfon was among Tory MPs backing the tax in the debate, saying: “The oil bosses are earning multimillion-pound salaries and getting multimillion-pound bonuses. “They are the new oligarchs.” But no Tory MPs voted for the windfall tax, according to House of Commons voting records.
Following the vote, Mr Miliband said: “Every Conservative MP who voted against the windfall tax has condemned millions of families to misery and anxiety as they struggle to pay their energy bills.
“This is a government that will never put working people first, will never stand up to the vested interests and has no answers to the cost of living crisis this country faces.”
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Conservative MPs have chosen to side with oil and gas companies over working people.
“Enough is enough. The Chancellor must bring forward an emergency Budget to give households grants to help with energy bills.”