Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says we are facing “decisions of eye-watering difficulty” in order to balance the government’s books, which means more cuts to public services that are already on their knees.
But this government is effectively handing out hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money to subsidise new oil and gas fields, which have next to no public benefit. The Rosebank field, for example, will see over £500m effectively handed over in subsidies, with most of this money – our money – going to one oil and gas giant, Equinor, which is owned by the Norwegian state.
Earlier today, we learned Rosebank's owner Equinor made record profits of £21 billion over the past 3 months. This brings their total profits from the start of the year to almost £50 billion. Yet, the UK government insisting on giving Equinor hundreds of millions of pounds of public money. Instead of handing this money over to profiteering oil and gas companies, what could - and should - the Chancellor be spending it on?
For £500 million, the Chancellor could:
- Extend free school meals to every child in a family in receipt of universal credit, benefiting 800,000 children (1)
- Pay the annual salary of over 14,000 nurses (2)
- Build 1 new medium-sized NHS hospital (3)
This isn’t an 'eye-wateringly' difficult decision. It's quite simple:
- Free School Meals NOT Fossil Fuel profits
- More nurses NOT North Sea oil for export
- Give it to the NHS NOT the Norwegian state-owned oil company.
Join us in calling on the UK government to #StopRosebank and stop subisiding new oil & gas fields.
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