Easington MP Grahame Morris has called on the Government to stop treating the country as an open sewer.

Analysis conducted by the Labour Party revealed that over the last seven years, 1,276 years’ worth of raw sewage was dumped into British waters. On average, this equates to a new Tory-sanctioned sewage dumping event taking place every two-and-a-half minutes in places where people live, work, and holiday.

In England, not a single river is classed as being in a healthy condition. None meet good chemical standards, and few achieve good ecological standards. The Tories have given the green light for water companies to dump sewage and neglect infrastructure while permitting shareholders and water bosses to walk away with billions in dividends and bonuses.

During the passage of the Environment Act, Conservative MPs voted against a Labour-backed amendment to end sewage dumping. Tory MPs voted to continue the sewage scandal, despite the consequences for the environment, public health, and businesses that rely on the beauty and nature of Britain to attract visitors and thrive.

Easington MP Grahame Morris welcomed Labour’s policy to end sewage dumping.

Labour has pledged to build a better Britain and end the Tory sewage scandal by delivering mandatory monitoring on all sewage outlets, introducing automatic fines for discharges, setting ambitious targets for stopping systematic sewage dumping, and ensuring that water bosses are held to account for negligence.

Mr Morris highlighted that in the Easington constituency, there were 724 sewage dumping incidents in 2022, dumping sewage into local waterways for 2424 hours. This is the equivalent of there being a continuous flow of sewage taking place for over three months of the year.

Mr Morris welcomed Labour’s announcement but called on the Government to act now to protect our communities, economy, and environment.

Grahame Morris MP for Easington said:

“No one should have to worry about whether they are able to enjoy our areas of outstanding beauty, as we seek to encourage more people to experience our natural heritage, such as our East Durham Heritage Coast, connected nature reserves, and ancient woodlands.

Our coastline communities and businesses should not have to worry about Tory-sanctioned sewage dumping impacting employment, trade, and opportunity. We must end the Tory sewage scandal and assign to history the disgraceful images of sewage pipes pumping raw human waste into our rivers and coastlines.

If you love our country, and all its wonderful natural beauty and ecology, the Government would not allow water companies to treat our environment and communities as an open sewer.”

Jim McMahon OBE MP, Shadow Environment Secretary, said:

“That the Tories have allowed villages, towns, and cities across the country to be treated as open sewers shows that they have no respect for places where people live, work and holiday.

“Communities in East Durham should be able to just enjoy the place where they live without having to worry about encountering filthy raw sewage.

“The next Labour Government will end the Tory sewage scandal, delivering mandatory monitoring on all sewage outlets, introducing automatic fines for discharges, setting ambitious targets for stopping systematic sewage dumping, and ensuring that water bosses are held to account for negligence.”