Henry Smith votes against measures to prevent sewage discharges in Crawley and across the UK (again)

In what will come as a surprise to no one, Labour’s attempt this afternoon to get real action on sewage being discharged into Britain’s water ways was prevented by Conservative MPs, albeit by a convoluted route which I will explain in a minute.

The motion put forward by Labour stated:

That this House calls on the Government to set a target for the reduction of sewage discharges, to provide for financial penalties in relation to sewage discharges and breaches of monitoring requirements, and to carry out an impact assessment of sewage discharges; and makes provision as set out in this Order.

In essence, it not only required Government to set out a timeframe for ending the discharges, but mechanisms for monitoring and and penalising water companies if they undertook illegal discharges.

This seemed like the most sensible approach to the problem, which is why I co-signed a letter with Jim McMahon MP alongside other Labour Parliamentary candidates in support of the motion.

I’ve submitted a motion in Parliament that would allow @UKLabour to take control of proceedings & enshrine in law a requirement to end the Tory #SewageScandal at no cost to households.

If Tory MPs fail to support this, they will be voting again to continue dumping sewage 💩⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Zh0as1DSHO

— Jim McMahon MP (@JimfromOldham) April 24, 2023

The motion itself was never voted on. The Conservatives, mindful of the public reaction when they have previously opposed efforts to clean up our waterways instead moved an amendment to remove all wording after the word ‘sewage’. This amendment was supported solely by Conservative MPs or Independents who have currently had the Conservative whip removed. Unfortunately, that was more than enough to pass the amendment, meaning that the motion now read:

That this House calls on the Government to set a target for the reduction of sewage

The Conservatives then forced a vote on the amended wording, preventing any attempt to rescue the substance of the wording. As you would expect, Crawley’s Conservative MP, Henry Smith, was one of those who voted down all the measures actually intended to resolve the problem, leaving only a vague commitment to future action under the Government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.

No matter who is leading the Conservative Party, it would appear that very little will change on this or the public’s other priorities, nor that Henry Smith will gain the courage to demand action before he steps down as Crawley’s MP. Only a change of MP in Crawley and a change of Government in Westminster will deliver the change the country is crying out for.