Labour and Greens slam Tories after Shell profits are £1.4bn more than expected

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems have slammed the UK Government after oil giant Shell made nearly £1.4 billion more in profit than expected in the first three months of the year.Labour Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said the profits were "unearned" and called for a "proper windfall tax" on large oil and gas companies.Shell said its adjusted earnings had risen by 5.7 per cent compared with the first quarter of last year, reaching £7.6 billion.The company will have distributed around £9.6 billion to its shareholders in the first six months of 2023.This comes just days after BP announced that it made £500 million more than expected in the first quarter of the year.Labour, the Scottish Greens and the Lib Dems called for the UK Government to take a tougher stance against the oil majors.Labour Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said: "These enormous profits are unearned, unexpected windfalls.

And every excess pound that the energy giants rake in is at the expense of families unable to pay their bills.“Yet after all this time, the Tory windfall tax is still full of get out clauses with billions being bunged at oil and gas companies in special subsidies not available in any other part of the energy sector.“Unlike the SNP, Labour would be doing the fair and right thing and bring in a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants to help freeze council tax this year.”The Scottish Greens energy and environment spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: “These are climate wrecking profits, with every pound taking us another step closer to environmental breakdown.

The world is burning but the fossil fuel giants have never had it so good.“We can’t go on like this. The problem isn’t just companies like Shell, it’s the governments and