Sir Keir Starmer has attacked Rishi Sunak over the “shocking state” the Tories have left the country in during the cost of living crisis.
The Labor leader said living standards were on the floor after 13 years of “Tory failure”, as he pressed the prime minister on what he will do over rising energy bills.
Speaking at PMQs he said: “After 13 years of Tory failure, the average family in Britain will be poorer than the average family in Poland by 2030. That’s a shocking state of affairs. If the Tories clean on in government we are going to see A generation of young people learning to say Auf Wiedersehen in Polish, aren’t we?”
Mr Sunak blamed the rise in the cost of living on the war in Ukraine, adding: “And I just remind the honorable gentleman what we are doing to ease people through that.”
But Sir Keir said it’s “not as complicated as he pretends” as he called on the PM to “get rid of the loopholes in his botched windfall tax and finally choose family finances over oil profits.”
“Oil and gas companies are making vast, unexpected profits while working people face misery of higher bills,” he said.
“He can boast all he likes but companies like Shell didn’t pay a penny in windfall tax last year and they’re still not paying their fair share now.”
The windfall tax was raised to 35% in November which Mr Sunak said is “comparable, indeed higher than other North Sea nations”.
But whether companies are paying this tax is complicated as often they get credits for investments within the UK to bring their payments down -something critics have branded a “loophole”.
Read More:
What is a windfall tax?
During PMQs, Sir Keir also called on the prime minister to scrap the non-dom tax status and use it to fund better childcare provision.
He added: “It is not just bills or housing, families are paying over a thousand pounds a month just to send their child to nursery. If he scrapped his non-dom status, he could start to fund better childcare, put money back in people’s pockets and get parents back to work.
“Seems a pretty simple choice to me.
“So what is he going to choose? Wealthy tax avoiders or hardworking parents?”
Mr Sunak replied: “He has already spent the money he has claimed he would raise from that policy on five different things. It is the same old Labor Party, always running out of other people’s money.”
