Extracts from Commons
statement on Economic Update
(Leeds West) (Lab):...The
Government had a choice. Only today, Shell announced
that its profits have quadrupled to $20 billion. It described its
results as “momentous”—dividends up, profits up, and people’s
energy bills up too. Labour’s plan would impose a one-off
windfall tax on those excess profits, but this Chancellor would
rather shield the oil and gas producers while at the same time
loading the cost on to working people and pensioners. Cabinet
Ministers have described the oil and gas producers as
“struggling”. Tell that to the one in five people who are already
skipping meals so they can pay their energy bills...
(Blaenau Gwent) (Lab): The
Chancellor will be pleased that his campaign team are behind him
today. Does he really think that the super-profits of $20 billion
made by Shell are
untouchable? His hands-off approach will not persuade many people
across our country.
: What millions of people
across this country will see today is a Government who are on
their side and a Government taking action to help them with the
anxiety they feel about rising energy bills. We are doing it in a
proportionate, fair, targeted and responsible way to protect
people not just today, but for years.
To read all the exchanges, CLICK HERE
Extracts from Lords
debate on the Cost of Living
(LD):...The council tax
discount at bands A to D is £150, but it will not be sufficient
to meet the 54% increase in the energy price cap. I have
concluded that we need a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
The announcement this morning of Shell’s
enormous profits points to such a Robin Hood windfall tax being
justified. As I understand it, Shell has
announced $6.4 billion in profits over its fourth quarter. The
priority must surely be to cut the heating bills of vulnerable
and low-income households, perhaps by doubling the warm homes
discount and expanding it to all those on universal credit. This
should be funded through a one-off Robin Hood tax on the record
profits of oil and gas producers and traders...
(LD):...As
other noble Lords have said, Shell announced
today that it made £17 billion profit in the past year. I agree
with all those who said that it is beyond time that we thought
about—indeed, introduced—a windfall tax. Like the noble Baroness,
Lady McIntosh, I pondered on the extra VAT that has accrued to
the Treasury, which ought to be available to help people. The
cost-of-living increases and today’s announcements on energy will
hit everyone but the impact on the poorest is absolutely
devastating. The Chancellor’s package is not sufficiently aimed
at helping them. The council tax rebate is an untargeted, blunt
instrument. A scheme that helps people this year but has to be
paid back in future years is just a gamble on gas prices falling.
If they do not, at best the pain is postponed but it could get
considerably worse...
(Lab):...People are facing a
twin threat of rising prices and shrinking incomes. The
announcement of the new energy cap comes on the day when, as some
have mentioned, Shell has
announced that its profits have risen from $4.8 billion to $19.3
billion. It is so awash with money that it is paying an extra
$8.5 billion to its shareholders in the shape of a share buyback.
In the last decade, oil and gas companies have paid £200 billion
in dividends while the regulators have been twiddling their
thumbs and doing absolutely nothing. Over the last decade, the
big six energy companies have paid £23 billion in dividends,
which is 82% of their pre-tax profits and six times the amount of
money that they pay in corporation tax. The sad truth is that the
UK, unlike Ireland, cannot even produce its own electricity—it
has to import it. It does not even have enough storage facilities
for gas; thanks to the Government, they have been run down. Our
gas storage facilities are equivalent to only 2% of our annual
demand compared to—
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy () (Con)
Ireland does not generate its own gas—it gets it from us...
(LD):...At the same time, as
many noble Lords, including the noble Lord, , have mentioned, we see
Royal Dutch Shell and all
the oil and gas majors showing record profits. I do not intend to
get into a debate about who proposed what first with the Green
Party, the Labour Party or anybody else, but as my noble friend
said, the Liberal Democrats
proposed a windfall tax—a Robin Hood tax, as he called it—on
those oil and gas majors, which would help to provide a doubling
of the warm home discount, a doubling of the winter fuel
allowance and a £500 million fund to assist energy-intensive
industries, which the noble Lord, , mentioned...
To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE
