The great stink of England’s sewage crisis
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The raw sewage being pumped into rivers and seas in England has become a seismic election issue. The musician turned environmentalist Feargal Sharkey joins the FT’s Lucy Fisher, George Parker and Robert Shrimsley to assess how we got here, while the FT’s infrastructure correspondent Gill Plimmer analyses Thames Water’s woes. Plus, the team looks at scandals in Westminster and considers how much William Wragg’s honeytrap debacle and allegations that Angela Rayner failed to pay the right tax on a former house sale – which she denies – might damage their parties’ chances in this election year.
Since recording, Greater Manchester Police have launched an investigation into allegations that Angela Rayner potentially broke electoral law by failing to properly disclose her main residence in official documents.
Follow Lucy on X: @LOS_Fisher, Robert @robertshrimsley, George @GeorgeWParker, Gill @gillplimmer1, Feargal @Feargal_Sharkey,
Want more? Free links:
The great stink of Thames Water
Raw sewage discharges in England and Wales hit record levels
UK seeks to quell public anger on sewage with £11mn restoration fund
Senior MP quits Tory parliamentary party amid sexting scandal
Labour’s Angela Rayner refuses to publish tax records as police probe house sale
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Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Audrey Tinline with Leah Qiunn. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Political Fix from the FT is brought to you by Nutmeg. |
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| 0:30.0 | With swimming in sewage and no I'm not talking about us folks in Westminster. |
| 0:38.0 | Welcome to Political Fix, your essential insider guide to Westminster from the Financial Times with me Lucy Fisher. |
| 0:48.0 | And with me here in the studio are Political Fix regulars, the FT's political editor George |
| 0:54.0 | Hi George, Hello Lucy and columnist Robert Shimsley. |
| 0:57.0 | Hi Lucy and just before we get into this I do think the listeners ought to know that |
| 1:01.0 | you sort of disgraced yourself this week coming into the studio with a |
| 1:04.4 | Rishi Sunak style pair of Adidas trainers. |
| 1:06.9 | Samba trainers. It's not on it really is. Well this is the last |
| 1:10.7 | letter be said this is the last time I wear them before they meet the bin. |
| 1:13.2 | Thanks for outing me, Robert. I didn't realize I was a member of the Samba community |
| 1:17.5 | until Rishi Sunak came out and called so much ire amongst this gang. Well, let's get down to business. |
| 1:27.8 | We're going to discuss the future of Labors Angela Rayna, |
| 1:30.8 | plus what's up with a Westminster Honey Trap? |
| 1:33.4 | But first we're kicking off this week's show with another murky topic, |
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