‘These obscene profits are a slap in the face to workers whose jobs and futures have not been adequately planned for’Lloyds nearly doubled third-quarter profits to £2.3bn and Shell’s leapt to £8.12bn in the same week the Chancellor gave banks a lighter tax hit than expected — prompting calls for levies to redirect “obscene” gains into household support
“SICKENING” super-profits by banks and fossil-fuel giants are windfalls from the same crises driving a cost-of-living crisis for ordinary people, MPs and campaigners warned today.
Just a day after Chancellor John Healey’s light-touch Budget appeased banks with a lower than expected corporation tax surcharge, Lloyds Banking Group revealed a near-doubling of profits in the third quarter — to £2.3 billion from £1.2bn in the same period last year.
And oil giant Shell reported a similarly dramatic rise, its third-quarter earnings leaping to £8.12bn from £4.08bn a year ago.
Their surging fortunes reflect a boom time for banks and Big Oil alike. Barclays was the first of the British “big four” banks to post third-quarter profits at the start of the week, giving a figure of £2.3bn — a 12 per cent rise that hasn’t stopped it announcing 5,000 job cuts. HSBC followed with $9.6bn (£7.2bn), a 32 per cent increase. NatWest is due to announce its figure tomorrow.
And the five largest Western oil companies, BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalEnergies, are expected to report combined third-quarter profits of $53bn (£40bn), more than twice the same figure last year.
“The banks and energy firms are cashing in on the very same soaring prices that are hammering households,” Leeds East MP Richard Burgon told the Morning Star.
“Their super-profits aren’t the result of great investments or innovation. They’re windfalls from the economic turmoil caused by the wars on Ukraine and Iran.
“Windfall taxes should be used to redirect these excess profits into where they’d be really useful — giving cost-of-living support to ordinary people.”
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