𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

To be fair, that’s his default setting. Miliband getting things wrong barely qualifies as news anymore. Claims that he would cut £300 off household energy bills and create 600,000 green jobs have proved completely false. Instead, green subsidies are driving up our energy and income tax bills, while any green jobs created will be dwarfed by the oil and gas jobs lost through his mad ban on new North Sea drilling. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is in despair as Miliband blocks UK oil production as we face the biggest energy crisis ever. Now she has another reason to throw a wobbly. He’s just committed another howler. One that could drive a massive British company out of the UK altogether, costing us tens of billions.

That company is BP. The £85billion energy giant is a pillar of the FTSE 100, and its dividends power the nation’s workplace and personal pensions. It employs more than 15,000 people in the UK, with a supply chain supporting 75,000 jobs. And Miliband has just opened his big mouth, and threatened its very presence on these shores.

In 2024, BP contributed £4.4billion to the Treasury, including £1.2billion in direct tax on its profits, much of it under the windfall levy which sees it pay a staggering 78% tax rate. In total, the company adds £11.6billion to UK GDP. Miliband doesn’t seem to understand that. I assume Rachel Reeves does, although I can’t be sure. She’s not the brightest.

Last Tuesday, BP reported first-quarter profits of £2.4billion, driven by busy oil trading as countries scramble to secure supplies amid the Iran conflict. In other words, a temporary spike, not a permanent windfall.

BP will, of course, pay tax on those profits, so it’s a little windfall for the Treasury. How did Miliband respond? By publicly tweeting that BP’s profits are “morally and economically wrong”. It’s yet more Miliband madness, as he prioritises posturing to activists. His words might make sense if BP had started the Iran war deliberately to profit from it but – newsflash! – that was started by an orange man in Washington.

The crisis happens to be working in BP’s favour today, but may rebound in the longer run, by accelerating the shift from oil to renewables. BP operates in a cyclical market, and struggles when oil falls, something else Miliband doesn’t appear to understand. And this is a man reportedly lined up as our next chancellor, or possibly even PM. Apparently, Labour cabinet members are impressed by Miliband’s economic nous. Which shows how little they have themselves.

BP is one of Britain’s largest corporate taxpayers. It should be valued, not vilified. Yes, we need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, but companies like BP are essential to managing that transition. Undermining them has consequences. And we are about to face them.

BP tried going green, with its Beyond Petroleum renewables shift. It was a disaster. New boss Meg O’Neill has been appointed to right the ship. Reportedly, she’s plotting to pull out of the North Sea altogether, sick of all the windfall taxes. The next step would be to list the company in New York rather than London. The yanks would welcome BP with open arms. it would pay tax in the US, not here. Which would disastrous for Rachel Reeves, and the rest of us.

Now Miliband has given BP another reason to up sticks, by threatening to slap a windfall tax on its global profits, not just UK ones. If BP left, it would send a signal to the world – the UK is closed for business.

It gets even worse. If BP lists in New York, rival oil giant Shell will follow. And it’s twice as big as BP. So we’ll lose even more tax, jobs, skills, investment, everything.

Our stock market is already shrinking. The UK is deindustrialising at speed, as companies cannot afford the UK’s sky-high energy bills, among the highest in the world.

The result? A poorer country, fewer jobs, and a growing hole in the public finances that hard-pressed taxpayers will be forced to fill. Reeves is already furious at Miliband’s North Sea ban. His latest blunder should send her into meltdown.