Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney has condemned the surge in profits reported by major oil companies, calling them an obscenity as workers and families face soaring fuel prices and a deepening cost-of-living crisis.

The South Antrim MLA said: "The most recent analysis of oil company profits reveals that the eight largest companies have amassed an unprecedented $93 billion of profit in just three months of the US Israeli war on Iran.

"Some companies have quadrupled their profits while the level of human suffering for millions around the world has intensified. "It is absolutely immoral that such profits are generated while global poverty becomes more extreme.

"Rising fuel and energy costs are adding massively to the pressures endured by workers and families who are struggling to subsist.

"The British government has the levers to mitigate this deepening cost of living and fuel emergency.

"It must introduce a windfall tax on these oil and energy profits, and then ensure these are redistributed into supports for workers and families.

"There should be no further delay on taking decisive action to cut taxes and VAT on oil, petrol and diesel, and to bring down prices for consumers."