Douglas Ross urges chancellor not to extend oil and gas windfall tax

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has spoken to the chancellor to argue against any extension of the windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

There have been newspaper reports that Jeremy Hunt may continue the levy until 2029 as part of Wednesday's Budget.

Mr Ross told BBC Scotland's Podlitical podcast that he warned Mr Hunt that doing so would be the wrong decision.

He said the move would not provide the certainty that energy companies need.

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Mr Ross said: "What we need for oil and gas companies is certainty going forward. A further extension doesn't provide that certainty.

"So I've made the case very strongly to the chancellor that, if he chooses to go ahead with this, then we've got to see what other measures are in place to provide that certainty and security to the oil and gas companies."

The levy on oil and gas companies was introduced in 2022

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduced the 25% Energy Profits Levy when he was chancellor in May 2022. It was increased to 35% earlier this year.

Mr Sunak said at the time that the move was in response to oil and gas companies recording soaring profits.

The windfall tax applies to profits made from extracting UK oil and gas and in its first year, the scheme brought the UK government an extra £2.6bn.

Jeremy Hunt is believed to be considering an extension to the levy which was introduced by Rishi Sunak

Douglas Ross said he accepted Jeremy Hunt faced delivering "an extremely difficult budget to try and balance across a wide range of areas".

He said: "I understand the challenges that he is facing, but I'm not going to shy away from publicly saying I think an extension to the windfall tax would be wrong.

"I've said it privately to the chancellor, to the prime minister, to senior ministers and I'm saying it publicly.

"I'm not trying to in any way run away from this.

"If that (an an extension of the levy) happens, I think it will be the wrong decision by the chancellor and I have further meetings to continue to make that case.

"I'll continue to do that until just before half past 12 tomorrow when the chancellor stands up to give the statement."