TORY MPs faced fresh pressure from the Labour Party today to support its plans for a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas producers in a bid to cut energy prices.

On the fifth day of the Queen’s Speech debate, Labour sought to force a Commons vote on its amendment, due to take place after the Morning Star had gone to press, aiming to “tackle the short-term and long-term cost-of-living increases.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said earlier that he was not “naturally attracted” to a windfall tax, but that he would be “pragmatic about it” after it was revealed that the profits of BP and Shell have skyrocketed this year.

Shadow climate change and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband insisted: “This fair and principled measure now has support from business, trade unions, across the political spectrum and most importantly, the overwhelming majority of the public.

“Conservative MPs must now join the British people in calling for a windfall tax or explain why they continue to oppose measures that would ease the cost-of-living crisis.”

During the debate, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves branded the rise in National Insurance contributions the “wrong tax increase at the wrong time” and said that the Chancellor “should be asking those with the broadest shoulders to pay a bit more in tax.”

Earlier, Mr Sunak claimed that Home Office Minister Rachel Maclean was “absolutely right” to say that some people struggling financially should consider working more hours and that the government was “proud to be on the side of hard-working people.”

Fuel Poverty Action co-founder Ruth London said: “These massive excess profits are not earned. 

“Nobody worked for them. Nobody took a risk for them. And they didn’t fall from a tree like a windfall apple.

“They come from our bills and from the pennies customers are forced to put aside to top up prepayment meters, while children go hungry.

“And they go into the pockets of private individuals who are often obscenely rich to begin with.

“A windfall tax should take every penny of the extra money that these huge international corporations have been able to demand just because the market changed and they could get away with higher prices.”

Ami McCarthy of Greenpeace UK said that such a levy was “the only fair way to tackle the cost-of-living and climate crises simultaneously.”

Conservative chairman of the Treasury Committee Mel Stride said he would support a windfall tax as the arguments put forward my Mr Miliband "are generally sensible."