Ahead of the House of Commons debate on the Queen’s Speech, in which the Labour and Green parties have tabled amendments calling for a windfall tax, Greenpeace UK’s politics campaigner, Ami McCarthy, said:
“A windfall tax on oil and gas giants’ bumper profits is the only fair way to tackle the cost of living and climate crises simultaneously. They’re raking in record profits thanks to wartime energy price spikes, having made no new investment or taken no new risks – it’s literally free cash. Billions of it.
“These companies enjoy the lowest level of tax on their profits in the world, paying just 40% compared to the global average of 70%. This tax break is exploiting bill payers, fuelling the climate crisis and, in the face of the current cost of living crisis, is completely unjustifiable.
“A 70% tax on these bloated profits would raise more than £13bn extra this year alone. This could be used to relieve energy poverty in the UK, cover the entire investment required for energy efficiency this Parliament, and kick-start a nationwide roll-out of heat pumps. Reducing the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels is the only way to secure future energy resilience and meet our climate commitments.”
