Steve Reed accepted £1,786 worth of football tickets from bosses linked to a polluting water company

Ed Acteson, co-founder of anti-sewage group SOS Whitstable, said: “That Steve Reed, then Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, accepted the hospitality of a water company is hugely disappointing. Frankly, it is the latest question mark over an industry riddled with double standards and conflicts of interest.”

He added: “Just weeks after attending that event, he promised to take the water bosses to court for illegally dumping oil.”

“How are we to believe that these words were sincere when at the same time he was shown such obviously inappropriate hospitality?”

Northumbrian Water has dumped wastewater into England’s waterways for 280,000 hours in 2023 and has admitted the company needs to do more to improve its pollution record.

Matthew Topham, lead campaigner for We Own It, said: “It is shocking to learn that the man Keir Starmer appointed to the urgent task of cleaning up Britain’s rivers and seas was courted by the very corporate family he is now being forced to confront.”

The government has announced that it will crack down on the water industry. It has announced that it will block bonuses and take criminal action if investigations are blocked.