Gordon Brown has faced renewed calls to impose a windfall tax on the record profits being enjoyed by energy companies to help Britons cope with rising fuel costs.

An opinion poll has found widespread support for the move - 67 per cent of those surveyed 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' with the proposal.

The YouGov poll showed 57 per cent 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 per cent, 22 points behind the Tories on 48 per cent.

Labour's Jon Cruddas, a popular and respected figure on the left of the party 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."

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

The 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.

Business Secretary John Hutton indicated the Government was "looking at" the move earlier this month, after Shell, BP and British Gas all announced multi-billion pound profits.

But in recent weeks ministers appeared to have moved away from the idea, and were instead reported to be considering raising revenue by increasing the proportion of emission permission permits to be auctioned to the energy companies under the EU carbon trading scheme from 7 per cent to 10 per cent - the maximum allowed under EU rules.

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