Free to view, but in case it gets paywall, article contents:
*By Ben Riley-Smith, POLITICAL EDITOR ; Dominic Penna and Camilla Turner, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, 11 August 2022 • 10:45pm*
Liz Truss on Thursday night rejected calls to increase the windfall tax on energy companies to fund cost of living handouts for households, saying profit is not a “dirty word”.
The Foreign Secretary said she was “absolutely” against such taxes, arguing that such a policy approach would be taken by Labour.
The remarks are her clearest yet on the subject and come despite the Treasury devising an expansion of the windfall tax as an option for the next prime minister.
As a new forecast predicted that annual energy bills could soar to more than £5,000 next April, Ms Truss also said she would lift the ban on fracking.
Speaking at The Telegraph’s Tory leadership hustings in Cheltenham – which drew the biggest audience of the leadership contest so far – she said: “I don’t think profit is a dirty word, and the fact it’s become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem.
“One thing I absolutely don’t support is a windfall tax. I think it’s a Labour idea, it’s all about bashing business, and it sends the wrong message to international investors and to the public.”
The Foreign Secretary is the front-runner in the leadership race, having led in successive Tory member polls – but Rishi Sunak, her rival, secured more support from Telegraph readers in a live online vote during the hustings.
Both candidates have this week faced scrutiny of their plans to help households with the cost of living crisis.
Customers face more pain next year if annual energy bills soar to more than £5,000. Ofgem, the energy regulator, may have to set the price cap at £5,038 per year for the average home because of high gas prices, Auxilione, an energy consultancy, said.
Experts said the cap could hit £4,467 in January, with such a scenario leaving the average household paying £571 for energy that month. Auxilione warned that the cap was likely to remain above £4,000 throughout next year, saying there was little that could be done to directly bring prices down.
On Thursday, Boris Johnson led talks with bosses over ways in which the energy sector can offer relief for households. The Prime Minister told them high prices risked damaging the sector, but no new policy steps emerged.
It emerged this week that Treasury officials are preparing options for Mr Johnson’s successor on how to tackle the cost of living crisis, including enlarging the existing windfall tax on energy companies.
But on Thursday Ms Truss made it clear that she opposed that move, appearing to defend energy firms that have made expanding profits. Rising energy costs have seen oil and gas companies enjoying bumper profits, with BP recently announcing a tripling of underlying profits to £6.9 billion in the last quarter.
Ms Truss said: “First of all, I don’t think profit is a dirty word, and the fact it’s become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem. Because in this audience today we have hundreds of people who run businesses and make a profit.
“Of course, the energy giants, if they’re in an oligopoly, should be held to account, and I would make sure they were rigorously held to account.
“But the way we bandy around the word profit as if it’s something that’s dirty and evil… we shouldn’t be doing that as Conservatives and we’re actually playing into the hands of people like Jeremy Corbyn, who want to completely undermine our way of life.”
Mr Sunak, the former chancellor, accused Ms Truss of economic irresponsibility over her willingness to borrow more to pay for tax cuts, saying: “What I will not do is pursue policies that risk making inflation worse and last far longer.”
He said it would be wrong to make future generations pay off extra borrowing, saying: “It’s not responsible and it’s certainly not Conservative.”
The former chancellor attacked his rival’s promise to prioritise tax cuts as he stressed the need to help pensioners and low earners with the soaring cost of fuel.
“If you support a plan that Liz is suggesting, which says she doesn’t believe in doing that … because she thinks her tax cut is going to help them which it is not, we are going to, as a Conservative government, leave millions of incredibly vulnerable people at the risk of real destitution,” he said. “Now, I think that is a moral failure.”
The hustings also saw Ms Truss offer other solutions to the energy crisis, including ending the moratorium on fracking. She said: “We need to make sure we’re fracking in parts of the country where there is local support for it.” However, whether there would be local support for drilling to start remains unclear.
Ms Truss criticised the use of agricultural land for solar panels, but said she remained committed to making the UK a Net Zero carbon emitter by 2050.
She also said she would be “tough” on water companies and review how the utilities regulator was operating, stressing the need for competition in the market. The comments came amid frustration over hosepipe bans across the south of England despite water companies failing to tackle leaks.
More than 1,800 tickets were sold for the Telegraph hustings in Cheltenham – more than any hustings in the race so far according to Tory sources.
Senior party figures have suggested more than half the membership has already voted in the contest, meaning time is running out for the two candidates to change the dynamics of the race.
Helping people out is a “Labour Approach”.
Stick that on a campaign poster.
So what is this poundland Thatcher going to do that supports the poorest and vulnerable and doesn’t involve giving them money they don’t already have to pay these bills? How will she respond, if she actually will, she was dead against it on one day then shrugged and went maybe I will the next. How will support not look like state support and a Labour idea, which suggests we need a Labour government?
someone trying very hard to lose the general election. or at least banking on everyone forgeting what she said by then.
As it should be.
“But the way we bandy around the word profit as if it’s something that’s dirty and evil… we shouldn’t be doing that as Conservatives and we’re actually playing into the hands of people like Jeremy Corbyn, who want to completely undermine our way of life.”
If our way of life SUCKS, then yes I want to undermine and replace it with one that doesn’t!
We know who’s paid, or going to pay, her then don’t we?
I wonder if at any point in her little bobble head during this winter, when people are freezing and starving, when pensoners (the torys main voter demographic btw) are being wheeled out of houses in bodybags after pneumonia and hypothermia finishes them off will she realise she’s going to be utterly fucked in the next GE by a Labour leader lead by an old Ken doll with the personality of the dead Roses on my mantle pice ?
Good. We didn’t give them extra subsidies when they made a loss so we shouldn’t give them extra taxes when they’ve made a profit.
I dont think anyone is arguing about not liking profits but if you cant achieve profits without shitting on all your employees with low wages and shit rights you shouldn’t be in business.
Child malnutrition is fine by me says Truss
I suspect our climate change targets are about to be ripped to shreds on top of this. She will help out the energy companies until they have bled the planet dry and left us with nothing.
Incredible how she’s still using the Corbyn scaremongering tactic, you’d have to be some kind of fool to buy this..
14 comments
Free to view, but in case it gets paywall, article contents:
*By Ben Riley-Smith, POLITICAL EDITOR ; Dominic Penna and Camilla Turner, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, 11 August 2022 • 10:45pm*
Liz Truss on Thursday night rejected calls to increase the windfall tax on energy companies to fund cost of living handouts for households, saying profit is not a “dirty word”.
The Foreign Secretary said she was “absolutely” against such taxes, arguing that such a policy approach would be taken by Labour.
The remarks are her clearest yet on the subject and come despite the Treasury devising an expansion of the windfall tax as an option for the next prime minister.
As a new forecast predicted that annual energy bills could soar to more than £5,000 next April, Ms Truss also said she would lift the ban on fracking.
Speaking at The Telegraph’s Tory leadership hustings in Cheltenham – which drew the biggest audience of the leadership contest so far – she said: “I don’t think profit is a dirty word, and the fact it’s become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem.
“One thing I absolutely don’t support is a windfall tax. I think it’s a Labour idea, it’s all about bashing business, and it sends the wrong message to international investors and to the public.”
The Foreign Secretary is the front-runner in the leadership race, having led in successive Tory member polls – but Rishi Sunak, her rival, secured more support from Telegraph readers in a live online vote during the hustings.
Both candidates have this week faced scrutiny of their plans to help households with the cost of living crisis.
Customers face more pain next year if annual energy bills soar to more than £5,000. Ofgem, the energy regulator, may have to set the price cap at £5,038 per year for the average home because of high gas prices, Auxilione, an energy consultancy, said.
Experts said the cap could hit £4,467 in January, with such a scenario leaving the average household paying £571 for energy that month. Auxilione warned that the cap was likely to remain above £4,000 throughout next year, saying there was little that could be done to directly bring prices down.
On Thursday, Boris Johnson led talks with bosses over ways in which the energy sector can offer relief for households. The Prime Minister told them high prices risked damaging the sector, but no new policy steps emerged.
It emerged this week that Treasury officials are preparing options for Mr Johnson’s successor on how to tackle the cost of living crisis, including enlarging the existing windfall tax on energy companies.
But on Thursday Ms Truss made it clear that she opposed that move, appearing to defend energy firms that have made expanding profits. Rising energy costs have seen oil and gas companies enjoying bumper profits, with BP recently announcing a tripling of underlying profits to £6.9 billion in the last quarter.
Ms Truss said: “First of all, I don’t think profit is a dirty word, and the fact it’s become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem. Because in this audience today we have hundreds of people who run businesses and make a profit.
“Of course, the energy giants, if they’re in an oligopoly, should be held to account, and I would make sure they were rigorously held to account.
“But the way we bandy around the word profit as if it’s something that’s dirty and evil… we shouldn’t be doing that as Conservatives and we’re actually playing into the hands of people like Jeremy Corbyn, who want to completely undermine our way of life.”
Mr Sunak, the former chancellor, accused Ms Truss of economic irresponsibility over her willingness to borrow more to pay for tax cuts, saying: “What I will not do is pursue policies that risk making inflation worse and last far longer.”
He said it would be wrong to make future generations pay off extra borrowing, saying: “It’s not responsible and it’s certainly not Conservative.”
The former chancellor attacked his rival’s promise to prioritise tax cuts as he stressed the need to help pensioners and low earners with the soaring cost of fuel.
“If you support a plan that Liz is suggesting, which says she doesn’t believe in doing that … because she thinks her tax cut is going to help them which it is not, we are going to, as a Conservative government, leave millions of incredibly vulnerable people at the risk of real destitution,” he said. “Now, I think that is a moral failure.”
The hustings also saw Ms Truss offer other solutions to the energy crisis, including ending the moratorium on fracking. She said: “We need to make sure we’re fracking in parts of the country where there is local support for it.” However, whether there would be local support for drilling to start remains unclear.
Ms Truss criticised the use of agricultural land for solar panels, but said she remained committed to making the UK a Net Zero carbon emitter by 2050.
She also said she would be “tough” on water companies and review how the utilities regulator was operating, stressing the need for competition in the market. The comments came amid frustration over hosepipe bans across the south of England despite water companies failing to tackle leaks.
More than 1,800 tickets were sold for the Telegraph hustings in Cheltenham – more than any hustings in the race so far according to Tory sources.
Senior party figures have suggested more than half the membership has already voted in the contest, meaning time is running out for the two candidates to change the dynamics of the race.
Helping people out is a “Labour Approach”.
Stick that on a campaign poster.
So what is this poundland Thatcher going to do that supports the poorest and vulnerable and doesn’t involve giving them money they don’t already have to pay these bills? How will she respond, if she actually will, she was dead against it on one day then shrugged and went maybe I will the next. How will support not look like state support and a Labour idea, which suggests we need a Labour government?
someone trying very hard to lose the general election. or at least banking on everyone forgeting what she said by then.
As it should be.
“But the way we bandy around the word profit as if it’s something that’s dirty and evil… we shouldn’t be doing that as Conservatives and we’re actually playing into the hands of people like Jeremy Corbyn, who want to completely undermine our way of life.”
If our way of life SUCKS, then yes I want to undermine and replace it with one that doesn’t!
We know who’s paid, or going to pay, her then don’t we?
I wonder if at any point in her little bobble head during this winter, when people are freezing and starving, when pensoners (the torys main voter demographic btw) are being wheeled out of houses in bodybags after pneumonia and hypothermia finishes them off will she realise she’s going to be utterly fucked in the next GE by a Labour leader lead by an old Ken doll with the personality of the dead Roses on my mantle pice ?
Good. We didn’t give them extra subsidies when they made a loss so we shouldn’t give them extra taxes when they’ve made a profit.
I dont think anyone is arguing about not liking profits but if you cant achieve profits without shitting on all your employees with low wages and shit rights you shouldn’t be in business.
Child malnutrition is fine by me says Truss
I suspect our climate change targets are about to be ripped to shreds on top of this. She will help out the energy companies until they have bled the planet dry and left us with nothing.
Incredible how she’s still using the Corbyn scaremongering tactic, you’d have to be some kind of fool to buy this..
Lol. Hope you can pay. If not – stop voting Tory