Profits are astronomical for a firm providing the energy people need to be warm and safe

Government to set up a "social tariff" so hard-up consumers pay less for gas and electricity.

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But the Government source hit back, saying: "There is nothing stopping British Gas immediately passing on a discount, or introducing a tariff, from the massive profits it has posted." Annual British Gas profits jumped tenfold during the energy crisis to £751million in 2023 from £72million a year earlier, parent company Centrica revealed.

The figures were called an insult to hard-working households struggling to keep their heads above water in the cost-of-living crisis.

Fiona Waters, from the Warm This Winter campaign of 40 charities, said: "British Gas's obscene profits just epitomise rip-off Britain where bosses are paid millions each year at the expense of ordinary people millions of whom are living in cold damp homes because they simply cannot afford to pay their huge energy bills." Mr O'Shea, 50, chief executive of Centrica since 2020, called his eyewatering remuneration "impossible to justify", but added insult to injury by renewing calls for a social tariff to help bring down the cost of energy for the worst-off. He demanded a policy change with "the whole sector and Government coming together to find a solution for the poorest in society that are struggling".

He claimed a special tariff would be "the best thing we can do for consumers". But his push is for an industry-wide scheme, rather than one to be implemented immediately by British Gas, which supplies 10 million homes and some 400,000 businesses.