Ben van Beurden said at an energy summit that "probably ... government's need to tax people in this room" to pay for intervention to protect the poorest in society from high energy costs.Outgoing Shell boss Ben van Beurden has said windfall taxes will be "inevitable" in "protecting the poorest", as an energy economist and former government advisor predicts further windfall taxes will be "the next U-turn from the government".
"That probably means governments need to tax people in this room to pay for it - I think we just have to accept [that] as a societal reality," he said, "There is a discussion to be had about it but I think it's inevitable."Picture: Getty But later on Ferrari's radio show, Professor Nick Butler, who worked for BP as a group vice president for policy and strategy and served as a senior policy advisor to Gordon Brown, predicted that the government would bring in another windfall tax.
"That is just how things work, they should be able to make a decent, predictable profit - they need that to keep investing. But when the profits are so high, they should be giving something back, and I'm very pleased Shell and BP are saying so."The prime minister has so far ruled out extending the Energy Profits Levy, the existing windfall tax measures implemented earlier this year:
Even they can't deny it anymore...