BP stands accused of profiteering “while innocent civilians die” after raking in profits of £2.4 billion in just three months amid soaring oil prices caused by the Iran war.

The BP bonanza came in the first quarter of this year as the US-Israeli attacks on Iran sent energy prices skyrocketing and their profits soaring by 135 per cent on the same period last year, when it managed £1.02bn while one in 10 Britons languished in fuel poverty.

Branding the figures “horrifying,” Patrick Galey of Global Witness said: “It’s clear that fossil fuel companies don’t enhance affordability or energy security, they make life worse. 

“They destroy the climate, push up the cost of living, and rake in billions in profit while innocent civilians die.

“It’s well overdue that we make oil companies pay for the damage they’re doing. If they broke it, they need to fix it. It’s clear they can afford to.

“BP profits, we all pay.” 

BP chief executive Meg O’Neill claimed the company worked to “minimise disruption and the impact” of spiralling prices.

Unconvinced, Greenpeace UK’s Maja Darlington said: “The oil industry’s capacity to profiteer from human misery is almost limitless.

“Britain subsidises this industry to the tune of several billion a year, and yet they’ll still claim to be overtaxed. Today’s numbers make a convincing case that the opposite is true.”

Warning of more pain to come unless government steps in to curb energy prices, End Fuel Poverty Coalition’s Simon Francis said: “While the energy industry lobbies against the energy profits levy, we are now seeing the level of profits being posted which shows why a windfall tax is so necessary.

“Household bills are forecast to surge again from July, up 90 per cent on pre-crisis levels. 

“The government must respond with emergency support for the hardest-hit households and accelerate the shift to a renewables-led energy system that insulates people from price shocks caused by our exposure to oil and gas markets.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham called for action to stop “unfettered profiteering,” adding: “Everyday people must not be made to pay the price for yet another energy price hike while oil giants laugh all the way to the bank.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Commons that such profits were “exactly why we extended the energy profits levy.”