MPs in Berkshire have voted on an attempt to make oil and gas companies pay a new tax as their profits increase.
Major energy companies have seen profits double and triple even as a ‘cost of living crisis’ hits.
BP’s profits more than doubled to £4.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022, whereas Shell’s profits nearly tripled in the first three months of the year to £7.3 billion, according to the BBC.
The Labour party had proposed a ‘windfall tax’ on these companies.
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‘Windfalls’ are one off taxes that are used to target companies which have made profits for market conditions that they are not responsible for.
Both Labour MPs Matt Rodda for Reading East and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi for Slough voted for the windfall tax.
However, almost all of Berkshire’s other MPs, all of whom are Conservatives, voted against the motion, which was made as an amendment to the Queen’s Speech.
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Adam Afriyie, MP for Windsor; James Sunderland, MP for Bracknell; Laura Farris MP for Newbury; Sir John Redwood MP for Wokingham and Alok Sharma MP for Reading West voted against it.
No vote was recorded for Theresa May, Conservative MP for Maidenhead, or Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister and MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
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