Truss’s comments at a hustings in Cheltenham came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson held talks with energy companies on Thursday, where Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi hinted that the Treasury was exploring new taxes on electricity generators.Ministers would “evaluate the extraordinary profits seen in certain parts of the electricity generation sector and the appropriate and proportionate steps to take,” Zahawi said.
But Truss rejected that approach, arguing: “One thing I absolutely don’t support is a windfall tax. It’s a Labour idea and all about bashing business and it sends the wrong message to international investors and to the public. “I don’t think profit is a dirty word, and the fact it has become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem,” she added. “The energy giants, if they are in an oligopoly, should be held to account. And I will rigorously hold them to account, but the way we bandy around the word profit as if it’s dirty and evil, we shouldn’t be doing that as Conservatives.
The vast majority of both Conservative and Labour voters would support an additional one-off tax on energy and oil companies who have seen larger profits due to energy price rises