THE SNP will lead a debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday calling for a broad-based windfall tax on the excess profits of major companies - in order to fund a comprehensive package of support for families and tackle the cost of living crisis.

With exactly one week until the spring budget, Stephen Flynn MP will lead the SNP opposition day debate and say it is "absolutely essential that the Chancellor stops making excuses and delivers a comprehensive package of support without further delay".

The SNP Business, energy and industrial strategy spokesperson will say a broad-based windfall tax that targets Amazon and other large retailers, as well as energy companies, will ensure that all major companies who have made excessive profits during the covid pandemic and energy crisis can now "shoulder the burden" that millions of families face.

Commenting, Stephen Flynn MP said: "Millions of families face a devastating blow to incomes as the Tory cost of living crisis spirals out of control. With a week until the spring budget, it's absolutely essential that the Chancellor stops making excuses and delivers a comprehensive package of support without further delay.

"This Westminster crisis has been a decade in the making, with a toxic combination of Tory cuts, Brexit and a failure to invest in renewable energy costing the economy billions, stagnating wages, decimating social security, and leaving the UK completely exposed.

"It is vital that the UK government now reverses the damage it has caused by ditching the regressive National Insurance tax hike, reversing the £1040 Tory cuts to Universal Credit, matching the Scottish Child Payment UK-wide, introducing a Real Living Wage, and slashing energy bills by cutting VAT and giving households grants.

"Other countries across Europe are already taking meaningful action to support people. It's time the UK government finally caught up with our European neighbours and used the reserved powers it stubbornly refuses to devolve to Scotland.

"Under the Tories, the UK already has the worst levels of poverty and inequality in north west Europe and the highest levels of in-work poverty this century. Unless the Chancellor changes course, he will push even more families into poverty - and undermine the progress being made in Scotland with progressive SNP policies like the Scottish Child Payment.

"The SNP is calling for a broad-based windfall tax on all major companies that have made excessive profits during the pandemic and energy crisis. It is only right that companies making these huge profits shoulder the burden that families face. This must be a balanced approach across companies, which recognises investment in communities, rather than the ill-considered smash-and-grab on the north east of Scotland proposed by others.

"The UK government has been dragging its heels for months. By failing to act, Tory ministers are making the case for independence. It is increasingly clear that the only way to keep Scotland safe from Tory cuts is to become an independent country, with the full powers needed to boost people's incomes and build a fairer society."

SNP opposition day motion states: "That this House warns that households are to suffer the worst income squeeze since the 1970s; notes Institute of Fiscal Studies analysis that households are on course to be £800 worse off; calls on the Government to scrap VAT on energy bills, implement a windfall tax on companies which are benefiting from significantly increased profits as a result of impacts associated with the pandemic or the current international situation, and to scrap the energy bill rebate scheme and introduce immediate emergency cash payments for households”