• Lib Dem amendment to the King’s Speech selected for vote
• NAO Health Report: Heart of govt’s agenda must be rescuing the NHS
• EA Annual Report: public sick to the back teeth of polluting firms
• Cleverly: A failed Conservative minister with a tarnished legacy
• New figures show sewage dumping higher in 2023 than previously known

Lib Dem amendment to the King’s Speech selected for vote

The Liberal Democrat amendment to the King’s Speech has been selected for a vote expected around 7pm this evening.

The amendment calls for a range of measures including free personal care in England, better support for carers and a cross-party commission on social care to provide the desperately needed long-term reforms to the sector. It also calls for the scrapping of the two child benefit cap.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

I am proud the Liberal Democrats have tabled this amendment to the King’s Speech to stand up for care and carers. We will be the voice of carers in this Parliament and work with others to find solutions to the big challenge of social care.”

Millions of people voted for the Liberal Democrats because they wanted us to deliver change and a fair deal. Now, from our plan to tackle the sewage scandal to more support to fix our NHS and care, Liberal Democrat MPs are making the case for just that in Parliament today.

NAO Health Report: Heart of govt’s agenda must be rescuing the NHS

Responding to the National Audit Office report which said that the ‘scale of the challenges facing the NHS today and foreseeable in the years ahead is unprecedented’, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Over recent months, we spoke to thousands of voters and the same stories came up time and time again. People are waiting hours for ambulances, weeks for a GP appointment, and months for vital treatments, often in pain and distress.

The Conservative party has pushed our NHS to breaking point. Their years of neglect and failure have left patients without the care they need and deserve. This report lays out the true extent of the challenge facing the NHS and the new government.

Patients and their loved ones urgently need to see major investment in the NHS, to bring down waiting lists and stop dangerous delays. At the heart of this Labour government’s agenda must be rescuing the NHS and ending the crisis in social care.

EA Annual Report: public sick to the back teeth of polluting firms

Responding to the Environment Agency’s annual report showing ‘water companies underperforming’, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

The public are sick to the back teeth of these greedy polluting firms pumping their filthy sewage into our rivers and seas – all whilst lobbying for bill hikes for hard-working customers.

Enough is enough. It is right that the new government is moving towards tougher regulation of water companies who were given a free ride under the Conservatives, but there can be no half-measures in ending the sewage scandal.

Ofwat should be replaced with a new regulator with proper teeth to finally get to grips with water firms and protect our beautiful countryside.

Cleverly: A failed Conservative minister with a tarnished legacy

Responding to news that James Cleverly has formally announced that he will be running to be the next Conservative Leader, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

James Cleverly is just another failed Conservative minister who left the country in chaos.

His legacy in Government was a failed Rwanda scheme that cost the taxpayer millions and communities plagued by unsolved crime.

The Conservatives are still a divided party fighting like rats in a sack. While they argue amongst themselves, Liberal Democrat MPs will work hard to stand up for our communities and hold the new government to account.

New figures show sewage dumping higher in 2023 than previously known

Responding to new figures snuck out by the Scottish Government owned water company a week before the general election showing that there were 3,449 more sewage dumps in 2023 than previously thought, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has called for the Scottish Government to get serious about the crisis of sewage dumping.

Updated figures published on the Scottish Water website on 26th June, showed that there were 25,109 sewage dumps in Scotland in 2023, an increase from the 21,660 originally reported in March and more than double the number of dumps recorded in 2020. The duration of these sewage dumps was 242,367 hours.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have launched plans for a Clean Water Act that would see:

• Scotland’s Victorian sewage network updated;

• Every sewage dump monitored and published with binding targets for their reduction;

A blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers;

• A complete ban on the release of sewage in protected areas such as bathing waters.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

The scandal of sewage dumping in our rivers, lochs and beaches seems to be ever growing in Scotland. Just recently we had Portobello beach shut due to fears around E.Coli now Scottish Water tell us there were actually more sewage dumps than previously known about last year.

Even this new figure of over 25,000 sewage dumps is likely to be a huge underestimate, as unlike England where almost every overflow point is monitored, only a small fraction are monitored in Scotland.

SNP ministers have defended this for too long. Millions of litres of sewage are being dumped into our rivers, lochs and beaches.

These figures also leave the environmental credentials of the Scottish Greens in tatters as this record-breaking year of sewage in 2023 dumping occurred on their watch as government ministers.

To turn the tide on this scandal Scottish Liberal Democrats have proposed plans for a Clean Water Act for Scotland to update the sewage network, proper monitoring to find all the dumping and a complete ban on this filthy practice in protected areas such as bathing waters.