Shell paid no tax on their UK oil and gas production in 2021 while receiving £100 million from taxpayers in government handouts, according to Labour.
The research by the Labour Party revealed that Shell and BP have taken £700 million of government handouts for oil and gas production since 2016, as new poorly designed tax breaks hand back billions more.
The figures were highlighted as Tory stand-in chancellor Nadhim Zahawi prepared to call in gas and electricity company executives to detail a breakdown of their rising profits as consumers face record price rises.
Shell reported second quarter profits of £9 billion last month after reaping the benefits of higher gas and oil prices.
Rival BP has also reported its biggest quarterly profit for 14 years, with underlying profits of £6.9 billion as consumers brace themselves for £4,200 average household energy bills in January.
The Tory government caved in to Labour demands for a 25 per cent windfall tax on oil company profits last July to bring in £5 billion to help consumers with the rising cost of heating bills.
Labour said the oil companies can afford to pay a lot more despite Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss declaring that there will be “no handouts” for millions of households struggling through the cost of living crisis.
Truss has denied she is ruling out cash payments to support people through the cost-of-living crisis.
Asked on Wednesday if she is ruling out cash payments in “whatever form”, and will only help people through tax cuts, she said: “That’s not what I said.
“What I said is my priority is making sure we’re not taking money off people and then giving it back to them later on. I believe in people keeping their own money and I believe in a low tax economy.”
But Kerry McCarthy MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Climate Change, said: “Since 2016 oil and gas giants have been paid huge amounts from the public purse under the uniquely generous tax regime the Tories have created for them.
“Even now, when oil and gas profits are soaring to record levels and people are struggling to pay their energy bills, the Tories have given them yet another tax break. It is time that they pay their fair share.”
Labour said it was absurd that the government failed to backdate their windfall tax and left months of windfall profits untaxed after millions of pounds of payments from the UK government have been pumped into oil and gas producers over the past six years.
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
READ NEXT:
