Tory MP Accuses Clean Water Activists Of Putting Candidates' Lives In "Physical Danger"

As opposed to, oh, I don't know, sewage?

The Conservative party deputy chair Angela Richardson called the sewage crisis a “political football” and claimed opposition parties and activists had put Tory MPs in physical danger by campaigning on the issue. Richardson, who is standing for re-election in Guildford, where the River Wey was recently found to have 10 times the safe limit of E coli, also suggested the only reason people were talking about the problem was “because the Conservatives let everyone know it was happening”.

Speaking at a hustings held last week by Zero Carbon Guildford, Richardson was asked about her party’s record on sewage spills. “The reason we’re all talking about this is because the Conservatives let everyone know it was happening,” she said. “If you go and have a look at the manifestos in 2019 you will not find anything about water quality. It is a very, very convenient hobby horse to jump on and attack Conservative MPs for voting against things that would not work.”

She added that activists putting up blue plaques around the town criticising her record on the issue in 2021 “resulted in a police helicopter above my house and police sniffer dogs through my house”. “I was in danger because of the actions taken by political parties. It is no laughing matter,” she went on. “So my suggestion to everybody is to actually look at what we’re trying to do, working together and not turning this into a political football that’s actually dangerous.”

EDIT

Richardson’s comments have caused outrage among campaigners. “Every single river in England is now polluted and one of the largest sources of that pollution is the water industry, so for her to even suggest this is some sort of hobby horse or convenient political issue is wrong,” said the environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey. “It is clearly an act of desperation that instead of taking responsibility for the environmental decimation caused by their own incompetence they are now trying to shift blame away and point the finger at others. It is the dying, decaying voice of a discredited government.”

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/29/angela-richardson-tory-deputy-chair-sewage-crisis-political-football