Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce has called out Energy Secretary Ed Miliband for pushing a “deliberately dishonest narrative” around the North Sea.
The Secretary of State took to X (formerly Twitter) yesterday to slate BP - a proudly UK-headquartered global energy business - for announcing profitable results, deceitfully implying that they have been making windfall profits in UK waters driven by recent conflict in the Middle East.
In a now deleted tweet, Miliband said: “Profiting from a crisis is morally and 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.”
The reality is that BP’s most recent trading update reflects global earnings, with little profit derived from the North Sea where a headline 78% tax rate remains in place – stymying a £17.5 billion investment pipeline and costing industry jobs in their thousands. Two thirds of the quarter covered by BP’s most recent results came before the USA and Israel began their attacks on Iran.
Industry has advocated for the immediate move from the Energy Profits Levy, a punitive, jobs-wrecking tax regime, to the government’s own preferred permanent windfall tax, the Oil and Gas Price Mechanism – which is far more responsive to current price conditions and would have given both government and industry far greater certainty through the ongoing global energy crisis.
Commenting, Aberdeen & Grampian 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. 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.”
Mr Miliband's tweet was later amended 'to make the political message clearer', sources close to him told the Daily Mail.