Miliband accused of dishonest post on BP profits – Daily Business

Ed Miliband: deleted post

Business leaders in the northeast have criticised Energy Secretary Ed Miliband for posting a social media message criticising BP’s profits.

In a now deleted post on X (formerly Twitter) Mr Miliband accused BP of cashing in on the oil price rise caused by the Iran war. BP’s first quarter profit came in at more than double the corresponding period last year.

Mr Miliband said that “profiting from a crisis is morally economically wrong. That’s why we’re taxing these windfall profits to help fund support with the cost of living. And why the Tories, Reform and the SNP are utterly wrong to oppose the windfall tax.”

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce said the post was a “deliberately dishonest narrative” that failed to recognise that most of BP’s first quarter profits derived from earnings before the war and only a small proportion was from the North Sea.

The chamber said a headline 78% tax rate was “stymying a £17.5 billion investment pipeline and costing industry jobs in their thousands”.

Industry has advocated for the immediate move from the Energy Profits Levy to the government’s own preferred permanent windfall tax, the Oil and Gas Price Mechanism – which it regards as far more responsive to current price conditions.

Chamber chief executive Russell Borthwick said: “Energy companies pay their taxes where due on the profits they make. Ed Miliband knows this, but he is peddling a deliberately dishonest narrative in relation to the North Sea.

Russell Borthwick: Miliband should retract his comment

“Having already deleted his original post, he should now retract his comments in full and apologise to workers. 

“The basin should be providing secure energy to homes and businesses in a global crisis, but it has been rendered uninvestible by a punitive 78% headline tax rate under the Energy Profits Levy. 

“Frankly, the main beneficiaries profiting from the global energy crisis in the UK are the UK Government themselves – and the losers are the thousands of energy workers whose jobs have been thrown on the scrapheap. 

“Ed Miliband knows full well that nearly all UK profits are wiped out by eye-watering UK taxes. 

“Instead of indulging in subterfuge and scapegoating, the Energy Secretary should be fighting the corner of UK oil and gas – supporting a proud industry to thrive and standing up for jobs. 

“The UK should move without delay from the EPL to the Oil and Gas Price Mechanism – the government’s own preferred permanent windfall tax.

“Additionally, they must get the regulatory process moving to consent projects like Rosebank and Jackdaw without delay and ensure that as much oil and gas as the UK needs is produced from our own waters with the major economic upside that comes with it.”

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