Sharkey shocked Labour doing what it planned

  • Post last modified:September 5, 2024
  • Reading time:8 mins read


Undertones star-turned-water campaigner Feargal Sharkey is still scratching his head over Labour doing – checks notes – exactly what it said it would do on sewage pollution.

Now the sewage-mongers in blue ties are out, Sharkey has turned his ire to slimy Starmer’s sewage stooges in red ties instead.

Of course, it’s the same Labour Party he was cosying up to ahead of the election and encouraging the public to vote for.

Sewage pollution saga continues

Fresh from its parliamentary summer holibobs, the new Labour government has announced its new bill to tackle the sewage spoiling UK waterways.

On 5 September, it introduced its flagship Water (Special Measures) Bill in a policy statement. This will:

  • block bonuses for executives who pollute our waterways
  • bring criminal charges against persistent law breakers
  • enable automatic and severe fines for wrongdoing
  • ensure monitoring of every sewage outlet

It’s doubtful any of Starmer’s ministers took a little holiday dip at a shit-infested UK beach this summer. If they had, they’d know how woefully inadequate the new measures will be in halting the tide of water company crimes.

Prolific anti-sewage campaigner Feargal Sharkey had something to say on it:

In particular, he blasted the new government’s plans for doing nothing more than what existing laws already do:

Alongside this, he highlighted the party’s double standards:

And as some have pointed out, these bankers have also been complicit in the failed neoliberal sham of water privatisation:

While Sharkey made some important points, his outrage was also astonishingly hypocritical. Because, as some reminded him – this was the Labour government that he himself voted for and backed at the recent election:

It was all there in the manifesto

Of course, the Canary has already pointed this out too. At the launch of Sharkey’s new clean water coalition, we listed a damning rapsheet of his repeated suck-ups to Labour.

It’s as if Sharkey had no idea what was coming. Here’s the thing though, this isn’t the case of another Labour U-turn blindsiding the public. Although I would argue those were just as predictable. The Labour Party literally had these exact plans in its manifesto, which stated:

Labour will put failing water companies under special measures to clean up our water. We will give regulators new powers to block the payment of bonuses to executives who pollute our waterways and bring criminal charges against persistent law breakers. We will impose automatic and severe fines for wrongdoing and ensure independent monitoring of every outlet

In fact, Sharkey was also gushing over these very plans during the election campaign mere months ago. And he’s been doing it since 2022. Fortunately, the internet has kept the receipts.

In December 2022, here he is lauding Labour’s plans to fine water company bosses:

Fast forward to the election run-up, and Sharkey had this to say about just such measures as Labour has plopped into its new bill:

So from “now we’re talking” to “this is not it” in less time than it takes to water companies to pump drinking water full of parasites, Sharkey is well and truly taking the piss.

How much can change in just a matter of months. Not the dire state of water company pollution in UK seas and rivers. Nor the Labour Party’s half-assed plans for dealing with them. So that’s just Sharkey’s ill-fated love affair with Labour then?

If Labour’s vapid “change” slogan had Sharkey hook, line, and floater, he only has himself to blame.

Because at the end of the day, Labour’s slippery slate of sewage shills-turned-MP candidates, and criminal private water company ties were clear for all to see. A damn sight clearer than the UK’s shit-plagued seas at least.

Feature image via Youtube – Good Morning Britain





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