“My Party Today Would Not Create the NHS”: Labour MP Condemns Government Refusal to Look at ‘Who Owns Our Water’

A Labour MP has condemned his party’s “failure of imagination” after the Government rejected his calls to overhaul the ownership of the scandal-plagued water sector in England. 

Government-aligned MPs lined up on Friday to oppose his proposals for a citizens’ assembly, for the public to determine how to fix England’s water crisis amid decades of privatisation and as the biggest supplier, Thames Water, teeters on the brink of collapse. 

Left-winger Clive Lewis MP has proposed a Water Bill, which, if passed, would launch a representative citizens’ assembly to determine the future of the sector, following years of large dividends and bonuses being taken out of the system by England’s privatised water firms. 

Treasury select committee chair Dame Meg Hillier told the Commons: “We are elected to make hard decisions and defend difficult issues. We cannot make the world like the land of milk and honey – certainly not after the inheritance we received from the last Government after 14 years of mismanagement.

“We have very big challenges and we need to tackle them. It would put heavy pressure on citizens’ juries to do that.” She and other Starmer-aligned MPs also said some citizens would find it hard to attend an assembly. 

Gateshead Labour MP Mark Ferguson said even if a citizens’ assembly was held, as suggested as an option, in Birmingham, it would be “[even] more difficult than London to get to from my constituency.” 

“I do not believe [the problem] is about the specific geographic place; it is about how we get people together from all corners of the country, to make sure we have a regional spread.”

Lewis gave the arguments against a citizens’ assembly on water short shrift: “We put men on the moon. The British state can figure it out.” 

Government figures point to the party’s recent Water Special Measures Act, which gives regulators new powers to take “tougher and faster” action against water companies that damage the environment or fail customers.  

The Environment Agency now has increased powers to bring forward criminal charges against water executives who break the law, with tougher penalties, including possible imprisonment, for water executives who obstruct investigations.  

Just Stop Oil Has Called It Quits, but They Say Their Fight Is Far From Over

The climate movement has announced an end to its direct action campaigns. The group’s spokesperson tells Josiah Mortimer what’s next

Josiah Mortimer

Regulator Ofwat now has the power to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to meet environmental, customer or company standards.  

Dame Hillier told colleagues: “There has been endless discussion about how to resolve this situation, and stasis in the Government. We now have a Government [which] has begun to tackle some of these huge challenges.” 

Labour and Conservative MPs rejected nationalisation, typically on the basis that it would hit UK pension funds and other investors, and cost a large amount of money for the public purse. Lewis rejected the claims: “If [they’d] done their research, they’d know that British pension companies have abandoned England’s privatised water sector. 

“The vast majority are either sovereign wealth funds, private equity, or vulture capital. They’re not UK pension companies, who make up just a very small fraction, less than 10%.”

He said Labour needed a stronger vision for the scale of change needed – and that failure to overhaul the system’s structure was “negligent” and a sign of his party being “intransigent.” 

In an interview with Byline Times after the debate, Lewis said: “The water debate is a small part of the story about something so fundamental. 

“[I] got emotional in the speech. I genuinely do feel, listening to the debate, that my party would not have been able to create the NHS. 

“We would not have had the courage to create the NHS, something so fundamental as our health. Listening to them talk [on Friday] about water, they would have been like, ‘What about the private healthcare providers? What about all those who have invested? We can’t afford a national healthcare system.” 

‘Keir Starmer’s Government Should Stop the Austerity Denial About These Cuts’

The uncomfortable truth about Starmer and Reeves’s economic project is it is grim for living standards, public services and recipients of welfare, and should be opposed by all, argues his former senior adviser Simon Fletcher

Simon Fletcher

He pointed to examples where the UK Government after 1945 has committed to auditing a failing privatised industry, to determine a ‘fair price’ for the assets: “Some of that will involve investor and creditor ‘haircuts’ [accepting a loss]. 

“Some of that will involve the water companies probably going insolvent, and then those assets coming back into public ownership. Anything that we do pay out would be decided by Parliament.” 

The public gallery burst into applause in support of public ownership at one point, leading to them being chastised by the Commons’ Deputy Speaker.

Lewis said the debate “summed up” why the Labour Government is now “struggling so badly.” 

“Its plan is to double down on a broken system that will have repercussions not just for our economy, not just for our constituents, but for the country, for democracy.” 

And he noted his social media timelines are filled with voters saying: “When are you leaving the Labour party?” He has no plans to do so. 

But reflecting on last week’s Spring Statement from the Chancellor, which saw billions in benefit cuts announced, he made clear his frustration that “at the moment, I’ve got a Government that has a computer for a political brain. [We have] self-imposed rules, where the computer says, ‘we now have to do this.’”

Lewis points to the philosopher Hannah Arendt who wrote that when politicians “slavishly” follow strict economic rules, they are on a trajectory towards totalitarianism. 

And on claims that Westminster could not afford to nationalise English water firms, he added: “Frankly, my constituents can’t afford [the current system]. They’re looking at 50% bill rises on water between now and 2030, so it’s unacceptable.” 

The backbench bill is unlikely to progress further from its Second Reading on Friday without Government support, though there is a slim chance of a further debate on 4 July in what backers are dubbing ‘Water Independence Day’.

Clive Lewis said he would continue to campaign on the issue. “The cost of living [crisis] is not going away…I imagine that the amount of sewage that’s going into our rivers isn’t going to change even in the next five years. 

“So [environment secretary] Steve Reed isn’t going to have anything to show. Within five years, your bills will be going up. The sewage will still be going in. You might have a few less bonuses, but they’ll just increase pay.” 

He added: “I’m under no illusion about the grip [free market] ideology still has [on] my party. The bulk of the MPs in my party, but clearly not all, are still in it. It’s broken. It’s failing. It’s not working, and yet it’s like they are trying to throttle the corpse to get more from it. It’s not going to work.

“Rather than look around for alternatives, they are simply defending the indefensible. I thought they might have more, I thought their arguments might have been better thought through, but they were quite insubstantial and poor.”

Several Labour MPs backed Lewis in the debate, including Dawn Butler and Chris Hinchliff, but much of the support for his bill came from Green MPs such as Carla Denyer, the SNP, and independents like Jeremy Corbyn.

Subscribers Get More from JOSIAH

Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.

So for more from him…

Subscribe to Byline Times