Now Rishi threatens oil and gas giants with windfall tax
RISHI Sunak has warned oil and gas giants they face a windfall tax on profits if they do not increase investment to shore up Britain’s energy supplies.
The Chancellor seemed to signal an about-turn on Government opposition to a one-off raid on energy firms despite fears it could hit investment and jobs.
He said: ‘If we don’t see that type of investment coming forward and if the companies are not going to make those investments in our country and in our energy security, then of course that’s something I would look at.’
Mr Sunak warned ‘nothing is off the table in these things’, despite ministers ruling out a windfall tax last month.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, had said the move would be ‘a tax on jobs, would harm investment and add to the uncertainty in oil markets’.
Mr Sunak’s warning shot was fired during a discussion with users of the Mumsnet website in which the Chancellor, who has faced controversy over his family’s fortune, defended himself against claims he is out of touch.
He was cleared yesterday of breaching the ministerial code over his family’s financial affairs, after the Prime
Minister’s ethics watchdog found Mr Sunak had not broken rules.
Mr Sunak referred himself for investigation after it emerged that his wife, Akshata Murty, held non-domiciled tax status, exempting her from paying UK tax on overseas earnings.
Lord Geidt found two instances where Miss Murty’s tax status ‘could have given rise to a conflict of interest’ for the Chancellor. But the adviser on ministerial interests found that, in the first, the issue was properly declared, and in the second, a proposed change for some non-dom individuals did not affect Mr Sunak’s wife.
Lord Geidt wrote to the PM: ‘I advise that the requirements of the ministerial code have been adhered to by the Chancellor, and that he has been assiduous in meeting his obligations and in engaging with this investigation.’
He did not believe Mr Sunak having held a US green card was ‘an inherent conflict of interest’. He was also satisfied there was no conflict of interest over Mr Sunak’s blind investment trust and Miss Murty’s reported 0.91 per cent stake in Infosys, an Indian IT firm founded by her billionaire father.
Quizzed yesterday on Mumsnet about how he can empathise with hard-up Britons, Mr Sunak cited his grandparents who emigrated to the UK ‘with very little’, adding: ‘Of course now I’m in a fortunate position but that’s not how my family started.’
But he provoked a fresh row after he said it would be ‘silly’ to offer families further help with soaring energy bills.
Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, said: ‘How out of touch is this Chancellor? It’s time to act.’