Yahoo News Feargal Sharkey claims water companies 'ripping off' public as he backs Labour in Northumberland
Singer-turned-clean water campaigner Feargal Sharkey has backed Labour's candidate in Hexham ahead of the general election.
Speaking on the banks of the Tyne in Wylam, the former Undertones frontman hit out at water companies for dumping sewage into the nation's rivers, lakes and seas while paying out huge profits to shareholders. Mr Sharkey said he believed only the Labour Party would be able to deliver change by holding the water companies to account.
A lifelong fly-fisherman, the A Good Heart singer has long campaigned against the pollution of Britain's waterways. He became something of a figurehead for the campaign to prevent water companies dumping untreated sewage into UK waterways and coasts.
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Speaking to party activists and volunteers monitoring pollution levels in the Tyne in Northumberland, Mr Sharkey backed Joe Morris to win the seat for Labour for the first time in history.
He said: "In two and a half days time, this man is going to be the first-ever Labour MP here in a Labour Government and we can start to rebuild this country. This man has to become the next Labour MP, a future most people thought would never happen.
"Not only do they need to deal with sewage, but waiting lists and children living in poverty. We are one of the richest countries in the world, and 3.6 million children are living in poverty.
"One million of those children are destitute, with no security at all. That is not the kind of world I want to live in or be part of, and it's not the legacy I want to leave to my grandchildren."
The Derry-born singer also launched a stinging attack on the nation's water companies, including regional supplier Northumbrian Water.
He said: "I've been on stage shouting 'Hello Wembley' and now I'm talking about poo. I must have done something really bad to be reincarnated as an angry Irishman who wants to shout about sewage.
"In this constituency alone sewage is dumped into people's back gardens, brooks and little streams.
"One way or another, it is heading into this river, into Newcastle and into the sea. The Tyne is listed as being in mediocre environmental condition, it's hanging in there but it should be in good condition.
"One of the factors preventing that is sewage. We clearly have a situation that is totally disgraceful. It drives me on day after day after day.
"It is being driven by greed and profits. Water companies have paid out £72 billion of our money for shareholders and are £64 billion in debt. We have been played, we have been ripped off."
The Tories have claimed that it was the previous Government's push to monitor sewage outlets that has led to the uncovering of the problem, and has set a target of 2045 for cleaning up sewage spills in protected habitats. The Liberal Democrats meanwhile have called for the implementation of a sewage tax and a ban on bonuses paid to water company executives.
Labour has said it would put failing companies in "special measures" and give new powers to regulators, including the ability to block bonuses. Furthermore, it would bring "criminal charges" against "persistent law breakers" and impose "severe fines for wrongdoing".
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Sharkey further explained why he was backing Labour's plans.
He said: "The previous Government were taken to the European Court of Justice and told what they were doing with sewage was illegal. Since then they have done nothing and delivered even less.
"Even taking politics out of it, why would I vote for a strategy that has failed? The Liberal Democrats can promise anything they want because they're not going to win - they could promise to give everyone £1 million, or even £3 million.
"By a process of elimination, you end up talking to the Labour Party, and talking to someone that is going to be in power. My father was the chairman of the Labour Party in Derry and my mother was involved in the civil rights movement in Ireland - socialism and the Labour movement has been in my heart.
"The Labour Party and the Labour Government are the only people who can really hold the water companies to account."
The campaign around sewage has prompted a surge of support for the renationalisation of the water industry. In 2022, a YouGov poll found 63% of the public supported water being returned to public hands.
Despite this, it is not a Labour manifesto pledge, and Mr Sharkey fell short of joining calls for the water companies to be nationalised.
Explaining this, he added: "These companies have £64 billion of debt. Is everyone suggesting the bill payers and the taxpayers should pick that bull up and let the people run off with the £72 billion they have scammed out of the system?
"We need to make a really well-informed, balanced judgement and we need to make the right decision for the country, particularly in a cost of living crisis. Regulation has failed, we need took at the regulation of both Ofwat and the Environment Agency.
"I for one think they should be kept at the table and made to spend the money to fix the system."
According to NWL's website, the company's total borrowings on 31 March 2023 amounted to £3.63bn. In 2023, dividends paid to its Hong Kong-based majority owner CK Hutchison Holdings and minority shareholder, New York private equity company KKR & Co, grew to £105m, up from £91.7m.
Responding to Mr Sharkey's comments, a spokesman for Northumbrian Water said: "We share our customers’ passion to have a healthy, thriving water environment and we know we need to do more to reduce our reliance on storm overflows.
“Our priority is to reduce our reliance on storm overflows and that’s why last week we launched a £20 million project called ‘Smart Sewers’ which will aim to reduce our spills by 80%. The project is a UK first for the water industry and work has already started to ensure this project can be completed as quickly as possible.
“This project is one of many investments planned for our wastewater network, between 2020 and 2025 we will have invested over £80m on upgrading our wastewater network and we have ambitious plans to invest a further £1.7 billion from 2025 to 2030 to stop storm overflow spills and help improve our local environment.
“We would like to reassure our customers that we have some of the lowest amounts and durations of spills in the country. As well as this, we have the best environmental record of any water company in England, with no serious pollution incidents throughout the whole of 2023, or any since 2021.”
