Oil and Gas Producers: Windfall Tax

Debate between Lee Rowley and Tim Loughton

Tuesday 1st February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Tim Loughton]

My hon. Friend is being far too gentle on the Labour party. Is what we have heard from it not completely disingenuous? It has suggested a cut in VAT, which of course we can only do because we are out of the EU, which it voted against leaving. That cut would bring in a 5% reduction against what will possibly be a 50% rise in energy prices, so it would be a drop in the ocean. In addition, we have just heard that the windfall tax on profits—profits that do not exist at the moment—would bring in £1.2 billion, another drop in the ocean of the problem that we need to address. The Labour party is trying to con us into thinking that that is the answer to the problem that we will have. It is not.

[Lee Rowley]

My hon. Friend makes a number of hugely important and powerful points.