Polluting water firms don’t discriminate: Sewage is dumped on leaders’ doorsteps

The objective of launching the manifesto is to finally force political action – and stop our rivers from being used as open sewers, returning them to people and nature.

Sewage was dumped into the River Wiske, which runs near [Rishi Sunak’s ](https://inews.co.uk/topic/rishi-sunak?ico=in-line_link)constituency office in Northallerton, North [Yorkshire](https://inews.co.uk/topic/yorkshire?ico=in-line_link), for more than 1,100 hours last year.

The longest continuous spill into the River Wiske was at the Northallerton and Romanby sewage treatment works, which is minutes away from the [Prime Minister](https://inews.co.uk/topic/prime-minister?ico=in-line_link)‘s offices, and lasted for nearly 20 days.

[Thames Water](https://inews.co.uk/topic/thames-water?ico=in-line_link) facilities within a 20-minute drive from [Labour](https://inews.co.uk/topic/labour?ico=in-line_link) leader [Sir Keir Starmer’s](https://inews.co.uk/topic/keir-starmer?ico=in-line_link) constituency office in Camden, north London, dumped sewage into the River Thames for nearly 270 hours last year. Within a 30-minute drive, the figure increased to over 1,340 hours.

Stretching from the Cotswolds to the North Sea, the River Thames is 215 miles long, making it the second-longest river in the UK. Environment Agency data shows that Thames Water discharged sewage into the Thames nearly 1,400 times for more than 6,500 hours last year.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey’s office is located in his Kingston and Surbiton constituency in London, where sewage was dumped into the Hogsmill River for nearly 200 hours last year.

**i**’s analysis, which used the Environment Agency’s storm overflow [map](https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/c9b8f3ba094c429aa30e0e2b6eaf43ac) to track sewage spills near party leaders’ constituency offices, found that sewage was being discharged by the offices of the [Green Party](https://inews.co.uk/category/news/politics/green-party?ico=in-line_link) co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer.

The River Waveney, near Mr Ramsay’s constituency office in the village of Bungay, [Suffolk](https://inews.co.uk/topic/suffolk?ico=in-line_link), had sewage dumped into it for over 200 hours last year solely from [Anglian Water’s](https://inews.co.uk/news/anglian-water-sewage-chalk-stream-norfolk-2855069) facilities in Bungay.

Ms Denyer’s offices are located near the River Avon, which runs along her [Bristol](https://inews.co.uk/topic/bristol?ico=in-line_link) Central constituency. Sewage was poured into the River Avon from Wessex Water’s facilities in Bristol for nearly 700 hours in 2023.

[Nigel Farage](https://inews.co.uk/topic/nigel-farage?ico=in-line_link), the new leader of the [Reform Party](https://inews.co.uk/topic/reform-uk-party?ico=in-line_link), recently [announced](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/tory-despair-nigel-farage-channels-trump-clacton-3091413?ico=in-line_link) that he will be running for a seat in Clacton in [Essex](https://inews.co.uk/topic/essex?ico=in-line_link).

Last year, Anglian Water facilities dumped sewage into the North Sea from its Clacton facilities for nearly 800 hours, with one spill lasting 644 hours, or 26 days.

I’m sure we all feel much better for knowing this; if having shit dumped on the doorstep is good enough for Rishi it should be good enough for all of us.