WATCH: Sunak has crashed like crypto, Miliband says

Ed Miliband has accused Rishi Sunak of being “out of his depth” and compared the Chancellor to cryptocurrency, arguing that both “looked like the future” but “turned out to be one giant Ponzi scheme”.

The Shadow Climate Change and Net Zero Secretary addressed the Commons today in a Queen’s Speech debate, in which he made the case for an amendment to the address calling for a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies.

Miliband said: “Crypto has crashed, and so has the Chancellor. And how similar they are, the Chancellor and cryptocurrency, came out of nowhere, the value surged, looked like the future. But it’s all turned out to be one giant Ponzi scheme. He’s just been found out, he’s been rumbled. And let’s be honest, he’s colleagues all know it.”

The Labour frontbencher criticised Sunak for failing to act on rising energy bills, including at the autumn Budget in October. He urged the Chancellor to re-read his Budget speech, telling parliament: “It would make even him wince. It is a model of complacency. He drunk his own Kool-Aid.”

“Every step of the way, the truth about this Chancellor is that he has been in denial, he has been slow to act and he has been wholly out of touch in his response,” Miliband added.

“He’s out of touch with what is happening in the country, he’s out of ideas when it comes to doing the right thing and he’s out of his depth when it comes to the challenges this country is facing”.

Miliband argued that the government’s refusal to impose a windfall tax was “part of a wider problem with this Chancellor and this government”.

“Just look at the political choices he is making. He leaves non-doms shielding their millions while millions of families and pensioners face a cut in their incomes. He whacks up taxes on tenants and lets landlords off the hook,” he said.

“He makes young people at work pay more, but those getting money from capital gains pay not a penny extra. Wrong, unfair, unjust, out of touch – that’s who he is.”