- £32 billion profits and a bumper £5 billion pay-out to
shareholders means government must act
- Unite’s Sharon Graham says it is time the government ‘got
real’ on profiteering
Shell’s massive profits show the company is leading the way on
endemic corporate profiteering that has broken the UK’s economy,
Unite said today (Thursday).
On 1 January the energy price cap rose to £4,279 – ‘millions
cannot afford to heat their homes… Meanwhile Shell shareholders
are laughing all the way to the bank’.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “People will be
totally aghast at the scale of Shell’s astronomical profits.
Millions cannot afford to heat their homes and businesses can’t
pay their fuel bills. Meanwhile Shell shareholders are laughing
all the way to the bank. Shell’s £5 billion of dividends would go
a long way towards paying for a 10 per cent wage hike for NHS
workers.
“Is the government going to get real about taking on profiteering
or, as usual, continue its false propaganda that it’s workers’
wage rises that are causing inflation?”
Today, Unite also revealed that the UK banking sector is
making bonanza profiteering profits on the back of
Bank of England interest rate rises.
In the first nine months of 2022, the big four UK banks
(Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest) recorded profits of £19.8
billion. Since the end of 2021, big banks’ bank net interest
income has increased by 37 per cent.
