PM pressed on energy windfall tax

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The Labour left plan to make the issue a flash point at the party's Autumn Conference next month, putting further pressure on the beleaguered Prime Minister.

An opinion poll in The Observer found widespread support for the move - 67% of those surveyed 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' with the proposal.

The YouGov poll, commissioned by the newspaper and the centre-left Compass group, showed 57% of Tory voters backed the plan, indicating widespread anger at the profits being made by oil and gas firms.

In a further sign of Mr Brown's troubles, the poll put Labour on 26%, 22 points behind the Tories on 48%.

Labour's Jon Cruddas, a popular and respected figure on the left of the party who stood for the deputy leadership last year, said: "We need to take a bolder policy agenda to meet people's material concerns and that's why this policy resonates across the social spectrum.

"There are millions of people suffering from fuel poverty and it's the job of a Labour government to tackle that.

"Politically we also have to contrast that with the Tories.

"Cameron has fashioned a new Conservative language but his attachment to the market means he can't actually make Britain a fairer society, he can only talk about it."

A Compass petition calling for a windfall tax to help those facing fuel poverty has been signed by a number of Labour MPs, including ministerial aides Mary Creagh and Stephen Pound and the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party Tony Lloyd.