The SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford confronted Liz Truss for the first time on Wednesday during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs).
Blackford warned Brits today that the Prime Minister’s refusal to introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas giants will lead to a “Truss tax” which will affect millions of households across the UK.
Blackford further warned that the “Truss tax” will lead to “a decade-long raid on the bank accounts of ordinary taxpayers.”
Truss confirmed during PMQs that she will freeze household bills at around £2,500 and rejected to idea of using a windfall tax on the enormous profits oil and gas giants make to fund the package which could cost up to £150bn.
Read more related news:
Liz Truss warned ‘she does not have the support of the British public’ and rejects calls for a General Election
The SNP Westminster leader told MPs in the House of Commons, “On her first full day as Prime Minister, she has failed to rule out a Truss tax on household and businesses.
“Instead of targeting the profits of massive corporations with a windfall tax, the Prime Minister’s plan appears to be a decade-long raid on the bank accounts of ordinary taxpayers.
“These costs must not be passed on to consumers and businesses by deferring bills. Government must announce an enhanced windfall profits tax, making sure that those oil and gas producers pay their fair share from excess profits.
“Does the Prime Minister understand that her first act as Prime Minister will now define her? A Truss tax, that household and businesses will be paying for years to come.”
The Prime Minister then told SNP Westminster leader to “make his mind up.”
Truss said, “Well, I’m not quite sure what the right honourable gentleman’s position is, because on one hand he doesn’t seem to want oil and gas extraction from the North Sea, and on the other hand he wants them to pay more taxes.
“Why doesn’t he make up his mind?”
TheLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also pushed for a levy on the £170bn of “excess profits” that oil and gas firms will make.
Truss replied to Starmer, “I am against a windfall tax, I believe it is the wrong thing to be putting companies off investing in the United Kingdom just when we need to be growing the economy.”
Starmer said, “The Prime Minister knows she has now choice but to back an energy price freeze, but it won’t be cheap and the real choice, the political choice is who is going to pay.
“Is she really telling us that she is going to leave this vast excess profits on the table and make working people foot the bill for decades to come?”
