DOZENS of climate and fuel poverty activists occupied Parliament’s central lobby hall today to demand incoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak back a “proper windfall tax on fossil fuels.”

Activists from campaign groups Greenpeace and Fuel Poverty Action linked arms, read testimonies from people struggling with soaring energy bills and unfurled a banner reading: “Chaos costs lives.”

The protesters, backed by the Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) campaign group, called on the former chancellor to “start putting the welfare of the British people before fossil fuel companies” by extending his April windfall tax on profiteering oil and gas giants.

The move could fund a nationwide home insulation programme to tackle rising fuel poverty as well as a universal “energy for all” pledge to ensure everyone can stay warm and keep the lights on this winter, activists stressed.

They noted that in his previous role Mr Sunak had “torpedoed proposals for expanding home insulation after overseeing the debacle of the Green Homes Grant,” which was scrapped in March 2021 despite the government’s pledge to “build back greener” from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director Will McCallum, who attended the protest, said: “People need permanently lower bills and a safe climate, and that means more renewable energy, more financial support, a nationwide street-by-street insulation programme and a proper tax on energy profiteers.”

Politicians must “listen to the people, stop the circus and act, before it’s too late.”

DPAC activist Martha Foulds said: “After 12 years of brutal austerity, cuts to disabled people's wages and social security benefits have made it harder and harder for disabled people to afford everyday living costs.

“Many disabled people need extra energy to keep warm or charge assistive technology but more than 900,000 households with a disabled person are living in fuel poverty.”