Scrap oil and gas windfall tax says Badenoch – Daily Business

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch will call for the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) on oil and gas companies to be scrapped and new exploration licences granted.

Despite her own party introducing the windfall tax, Ms Badenoch will argue in a speech in Edinburgh that it is “killing the North Sea oil and gas industry”.

The Energy Profits Levy (EPL), introduced in May 2022, is a temporary tax on the profits of oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea. Initially a 25% charge, it was later increased to 35% and then further increased by Labour to 38%.

The levy has been blamed by companies for a slowdown in investment and redundancies and the industry has been galvanised by business leaders to demand its removal. Labour argues that the funds raised go towards the transition to clean energy.

The Tory leader will tell delegates attending the party’s Scottish annual conference this weekend that the price of oil has changed, so the tax must go.

“Renewing our Party and our country means standing up for our oil and gas industry,” she says.

“When the Oil and Gas Windfall Tax, the Energy Profits Levy, was brought in, the oil price was near a historic high, at the exact time as energy bills for the British people were sky rocketing.

“But there is no longer a windfall to tax. It has long gone. And the longer this regressive tax on one of our most successful industries remains, the more damaging it becomes.

“Labour have extended and increased this tax. They are killing this industry.

“And frankly if it is allowed to remain in place until 2030, as is Labour’s current plan, there will be no industry left to tax.

“Thousands will have been made unemployed and all while we import more gas from overseas – from the very same basin in which we are banned from drilling.

“So today I say enough. Labour must remove the energy profits levy. Labour must speed up the process of replacing it with a system that rewards success and incentivises investment.

“Because we shouldn’t have this energy profits levy at all.

“We must scrap the ban on new licences. We must overturn the ban on supporting oil and gas technology exports. And we must champion our own industry.

“We must let this great British, great Scottish, industry thrive, grow and create jobs – ensuring our energy security for generations to come, driving growth and making this country richer in the process.

“Scotland at the heart of our energy future for the next generation as it has for the last.

“For decades, Aberdeen and the North East has been the energy capital. Not just of the UK, but of Europe. It’s often said that wherever in the world you find oil and gas, you find an Aberdonian.

“The reason: because they are the product of a world leading centre of excellence that has grown up around Aberdeen, the supply chain, the research, the innovation that supports our and the global offshore industry.

“That is what we must protect. That is what we must champion. That is what we must grow.”

Ami McCarthy, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said: “In a desperate attempt to get a headline, Badenoch is continuing her failing strategy of parroting Reform as the Conservatives continue to tank in the polls. In reality, all this does is prove she’s out of touch with ordinary people who are fed up with fossil fuel giants raking in billions while they struggle to pay their bills.”