Wife of former Scotland Office Minister who criticised North Sea windfall tax has shares in BP

David Duguid was previously a BP shareholder.

The wife of a former Scotland Office minister who criticised the windfall tax has shares in BP.

David Duguid has condemned the policy in Parliament four times since the beginning of last year, and also voted against proposals to examine the impact of increasing such taxes.

Now analysis from the Guardian of BP’s shareholder register suggests the Tory MP moved his shares into his wife’s name five years before his election as an MP.

Scotland Office minister David Duguid has condemned the windfall tax policy in Parliament four times since the beginning of last year. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Today she has more than 11,000 shares and will have received more than £2,000 last year in dividends.

Mr Duguid, the MP for Banff and Buchan, has declared interests in BP in two debates, but only by reference to his prior employment for 25 years in the oil and gas industry, including ten years with BP.

He was previously a junior minister in the department from June 2020 until September 2021 under Boris Johnson, and again in Liz Truss’s short-lived administration in October 2022.

His wife’s shares were not published in the list of ministers’ interests published by the Cabinet Office.

David Duguid has previously been a BP shareholder.

As a minister involved in energy, Mr Duguid has met with lobbyists from the trade association Oil and Gas UK, now known as Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), nine times.

OEUK’s members include BP and its recent activity has included arguing against an increase in windfall taxes on energy producers such as BP and Shell.

The ministerial code requires newly appointed ministers to provide a list of all the interests held by themselves, their spouses and close family members that could create a conflict, including shareholdings under £70,000.

It then up to the independent adviser on ministers’ interests to decide which “relevant” interests are published.

BP’s shareholder register shows Mr Duguid stopped being a shareholder in BP in November 2012, on the same day his wife joined the company’s register of members. He was first elected in 2017.

Also vice-chair of the British offshore oil and gas industry all-party parliamentary group, Mr Duguid recently suggested in Parliament that plans proposed by Labour to ban new oil and gas drilling were “based on ideology”.

A spokesperson for the former Scottish Office minister said: “Mr Duguid followed the prevailing rules for reporting relevant financial interests.”