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Exclusive: She's one of seven conservative environment secretaries whose constituencies are blighted by sewage spills. The Tories' failure to tackle raw sewage dumping has been laid bare by figures showing Therese Coffey had almost 1,000 spills in her own constituency last year alone. Ms Coffey is one of seven Conservatives to have led the department since 2015, including Liz Truss, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom and George Eustice, whose constituencies have seen more than 15,000 total spills by 2022.
His Suffolk seaside constituency was hit by 982 raw sewage spills during the year, according to an analysis by the Liberal Democrats.
The finding follows calls for her to resign this week after figures showed there were more than 300,000 sewage spills in the UK in 2022. Ms Coffey has been charged with a "full abdication of office" after claiming that he was unable to put an end to the raw sewage dumping scandal. . "overnight".
But the figures revealed how a succession of Tory environment ministers since 2015 have failed to tackle the problem, leading to their own constituencies being destroyed by sewage dumping.
They showed Mr Eustice's Camborne and Redruth constituencies saw 11,292 raw sewage spills last year. He served as environment secretary under Boris Johnson from 2020 to 2022.
Ms Leadsom, who led the department between 2016 and 2017, represents South Northamptonshire. Her constituency was affected by 1,890 sewage spills in 2022. Her predecessor, Ms Truss, recorded 597 sewage spills in her South West Norfolk constituency last year.
And Gove, who was environment secretary from 2017 to 2019, had 70 spills on Surrey Heath, where he has been an MP since 2005.
In total, the constituencies of the last seven Conservative environment secretaries recorded 15,326 raw sewage discharges last year, with sewage being discharged for a total of 103,235 hours.
Lib Dem environmental critic Tim Farron said: 'Successive Conservative environment ministers have done nothing to tackle the scourge of dirty sewage dumped into our rivers and beaches. Today, their own local communities are paying the price for this rotten legacy.
“Conservative MPs are misleading the British public by repeating old baby wipes ads from years ago. It is laughable that three different conservative environment secretaries have promised the same thing without taking any action.
"The Conservative Party is facing a massive backlash from rural and coastal communities who are furious over this sewage scandal."
“Paying the price”: Wastewater discharge by private water companies has increased in recent years
On Tuesday, Rishi Sunak unveiled a new clean water plan with the promise of tougher regulations and tougher enforcement for those who pollute rivers, lakes and beaches.
Ms Coffey, who said companies could face unlimited penalties for dumping raw sewage, said more than £1.6bn of investment would be brought forward to improve water quality.
The plan includes consultations on a ban on plastic wet wipes and restrictions on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in textiles, cleaning products, paints and varnishes.
It came as it emerged that water companies in England were dumping wastewater onto England's 'blue flag' beaches, those deemed safe and environmentally friendly, 1,504 times last year.
Separate figures showed the top five beaches that faced the most sewage spills:
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