Three quarters of the 100 constituencies worst hit by sewage spills last year are held by Conservative MPs.
Environment Agency data showed that discharges of raw sewage into seas and rivers doubled in duration last year to a record 3.6 million hours.
Among the top 100 constituencies in England worst affected by the dumping, which typically happens when sewers are overwhelmed by heavy rainfall, 75 were held by Tory MPs. Three of the seats were held by the Liberal Democrats, and the rest by Labour.
Rishi Sunak’s seat in Richmond, North Yorkshire, was the tenth worst on the list. Yorkshire Water spilt sewage for almost 42,000 hours from storm overflows in the constituency. The water company was the second worst nationally last year for sewage discharges, with almost 78,000 across its region. Water companies have blamed the high spills on wet weather.
Torridge & West Devon, held by the Tory MP and former attorney-general Sir Geoffrey Cox, was the worst-affected seat in England. South West Water, which last year reported a half-year profit of £85.9 million, was responsible for almost 100,000 hours of spills in the constituency, a 65 per cent increase on 2022.
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The Liberal Democrats, who conducted the analysis, said Tory MPs would face a “reckoning at the ballot box” from Conservative voters angry over sewage pollution. The party has made the state of rivers and seas a top campaigning priority before the general election. Sir Ed Davey, the leader, seized on the issue after crediting it with helping the Liberal Democrat Sarah Green win the by-election in Chesham & Amersham, Buckinghamshire.
Almost all of the seats in England saw an increase in the duration of sewage spills last year. With the ground saturated after persistent rainfall, sewage treatment plants regularly reached capacity and sewer networks suffered from “infiltration” as groundwater seeped into pipes.
Several of the badly affected constituencies are held by ministers, including Central Devon where the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, is MP and where South West Water released sewage for more than 60,000 hours. North East Cambridgeshire, held by the environment secretary, Steve Barclay, had a smaller duration of spills, about 8,000 hours, but a 182 per cent increase in how long each lasted.
Other cabinet ministers with constituencies in the top fifth of those worst affected include Richard Holden, Gillian Keegan, Chris Heaton-Harris, Mark Harper, Michelle Donelan, Victoria Atkins and Lucy Frazer. Collectively, seats held by cabinet ministers had about 265,000 hours of spills last year.
“These figures show the worst-hit areas by soaring levels of sewage dumping are held by Conservative MPs, including Rishi Sunak’s own constituency,” Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, said. “It shows Conservative ministers are turning a blind eye to rivers and beaches being ruined by filthy sewage dumping in their own backyards.”
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Water companies have now paid out a total of £78 billion in dividends since privatisation in 1991. The Financial Times found firms in England and Wales had paid £2.5 billion in dividends since 2021. Barclay wanted to ban dividends for firms which broke the law on water pollution, but the Treasury rejected the idea.
The findings on spills echo a Times analysis of earlier data, which showed that out of 79,467 sewage releases in marginal constituencies in 2022, more than 39,000 were in Conservative seats. Marginal seats are those won in the 2019 general election by less than 10 per cent, and are considered crucial to the outcome of an election expected later this year.
The issue of water quality has been elevated in recent weeks by a series of celebrity protests, with the former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey and the actor Steve Coogan protesting at Windermere over sewage discharges.
The Conservative Party has not responded to requests for comment.
