Labour will take on vested interests from water companies to housebuilders and farmers in an effort to restore the UK’s degraded natural environment, the party’s environment chief has said.
Steve Reed, the shadow environment secretary, said: “If the Tories want to have an election fight over that, bring it on, because the British people care about the countryside, they care about nature. They care about living in a beautiful country. They value their access to the countryside. The Conservatives are on the wrong side of all that, and to many, many voters that will tip their votes.”
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Labour exposed this when the government tried to weaken nutrient neutrality rules in August, in plans that would have given housebuilders carte blanche to build without considering the impact of sewage from new houses.
Tony Blair won a landslide in 1997 by taking a majority for the first time for Labour in rural, semi-rural and coastal seats, and again in 2001, but since then the party’s support in such areas has waned.
The Liberal Democrats have made big byelection gains, overturning huge Tory majorities largely through a strong focus on green issues such as the pollution of waterways.
He was said to be instrumental in controversial ads attacking Rishi Sunak this year, and his appointment was widely seen as a sign that Starmer was attempting not to cede the initiative to the Lib Dems on green issues such as sewage, nature and housebuilding.
They have left working families who live in the countryside facing low pay and rising poverty, inadequate public transport and the destruction of good local jobs,” he said.
British rivers are dying not just because water companies fill them with sewage, but also because of pollution by farmers, who the Guardian has revealed are barely inspected owing to savage budget cuts at the Environment Agency.
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