By BP profits high as calls for windfall tax grow
BP’s profits for the first three months of this year have doubled after the prices of oil and has soared as the cost of living continues to rise.
The company reported a profit £4.9bm, compared to a figure of a figure of almost half in the same period last year.
BP said the large increase was due in part to “exceptional oil and gas trading.”
There have been calls for a windfall tax on energy companies to help UK households face the squeeze.
The UK is facing an inflation rate that is said to be the highest for 30 years, fuelled by the rising cost of oil and has.
Labour Leader Keir Starmer told the BBC “reinforce the case that we’ve been making which is that, with so many people struggling to pay their energy bills, we should have a windfall tax on oil and gas companies in the North Sea who have made more profit than they were expecting.”
The PM said a windfall tax would jeopardise investment and keep oil prices higher long term.
He said to ITV news: “if you put a windfall tax on the energy companies, what that means is that you discourage them from making the investments that we want to see that will, in the end, keep energy prices lower for everybody.”
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said they should “pay a little more to help the most vulnerable.”
“The Conservative government’s refusal to introduce a windfall tax on the super profits of oil companies is becoming impossible to justify, BP is raking in eye-watering profits while millions of people struggle to pay the bills.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he would explore a windfall tax policy if companies did not invest enough in the UK.
