Rishi Sunak is among ten ministers to have received more than £290,000 from oil and gas companies, Labour analysis claims.
The prime minister sits alongside Michael Gove and sacked Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi in receiving money from high-profile donors operating in the sector.
His Richmond Conservative Association had £6,000 from former oil baron Alexander Temerko when the Ukrainian was a director of Offshore Group Newcastle.
Gove ’s local Surrey Heath party got £75,000 from Tullow Oil boss Aidan Heavey, while Zahawi had a £2,000 donation in 2017 to his local party from Amjad Bseisu, boss of North Sea oil firm EnQuest.
The revelation came as one of the UK and Europe’s biggest gas producers became the latest energy firm to stoke mounting anger over “grotesque” record-breaking annual profits.
Norwegian firm Equinor posted underlying earnings of 74.9 billion US dollars (£61.9 billion), more than double the 33.5 billion US dollars (£27.7 billion) it made in 2021.
On a net profit basis, it reported 28.7 billion US dollars (£23.8 billion) compared with profits of 8.6 billion US dollars (£7.1 billion) in 2021.
It follows similar mammoth bottom line profits for oil and gas giants in recent days thanks to last year’s soaring energy prices, with BP and Shell both posting record-breaking figures for 2022, at £23 billion and £33 billion respectively.
Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Millions of households are looking at a 40 per cent increase.”
Meanwhile, calls for a hike in the windfall tax appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
Related: Tory Minister says Sunak, Hunt have ‘restored confidence’ in UK economy
