The Chancellor has been urged to levy a windfall tax on commercial banks to fund a £300 cut to energy bills.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has pushed for Rachel Reeves to follow plans proposed by the IPPR think tank – based on a similar tax from Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s – which said such a levy would raise around £8 billion annually.

The SNP compared its proposals to the Energy Bills Support Scheme, which provided £400 payments under the last Tory government.

The total cost of the policy was almost £11.4 billion, but the new scheme proposed by the SNP would cost around £8.15 billion, the party said, owing to the £300 payment and the fact that top rate taxpayers in Scotland and the additional rate elsewhere in the UK would not receive the support.

Mr Flynn said: "This SNP B

See Full Page