Oil price fall 'a real hit to tax revenues', says Balls

The shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has challenged the government to act quickly to respond to falling oil prices.

His remarks come in response to the announcement from BP that it's cutting 200 staff jobs and 100 contractor roles at its north sea oil operation.

The firm has been scaling back the business since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 - a process that's been accelerated by the falling price of oil.

Mr Balls says the government needs to step in to mitigate the impact of the drop in price.