Boris Johnson’s dad slams Johnson government in interview with Johnson’s sister

Boris Johnson’s dad criticised Boris Johnson’s government in a live radio interview with Boris Johnson ’s sister.

The surreal scene unfolded on LBC, where environmental campaigner Stanley appeared on journalist Rachel’s phone-in show to complain about the policies of the Prime Minister.

Mr Johnson Senior, 82, said the government had not done enough to tackle water companies pouring sewage into rivers and the sea.

He added Brexit – which he opposed and his son backed – had been a blow to water quality, saying an EU directive “transformed the quality of bathing water around the whole of Europe”, with the UK “taken before the European Court of Justice and forced to clean up their sewage outflows”.

But Tory MP Huw Merriman swiped on Twitter : “When I was a baby, Johnson and Johnson used to powder backsides rather than be paid to talk out of them.

“There is too much nepotism in politics. It must stop. People must believe they can succeed by merit and hard-work.”

Pollution warnings were issued at more than 40 beaches and swimming spots last week after heavy rain overwhelmed the sewage system after drought.

The south west and south coast of England were the worst affected, according to data gathered by environmental campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).

Today water firms were accused of “gross negligence” after 24% of sewage overflow pipes had a “faulty” monitoring device – or none at all.

Research says 1,802 of the 14,470 storm overflows in England and Wales had a monitor that worked less than 90% of the time last year.

Another 1,717 had no monitoring device at all, according to Environment Agency figures analysed by the Lib Dems.

Even in designated swimming waters, there were 80 sewage overflow pipes whose monitors worked less than 90% of the time and six with no monitor.

The government insisted the number of monitors has surged from 800 in 2016 to more than 12,000, and should cover every overflow by December 2023.

Water UK, which represents water firms, said monitors that worked less than 90% of the year were not necessarily “faulty” – because they take time to calibrate before they are fully operational.

But Lib Dem environment spokesman Tim Farron said: “These water companies could be guilty of gross negligence by failing to install sewage monitors. This is a national scandal and these new figures stink of a cover-up.”

Stanley Johnson was asked by his sister who he blamed for the scandal.

He replied: “I would say we have to blame the government, for not pressing this matter as hard as it should have done.

“And of course absent the EU push as well, you can understand how the government has felt able to, you know, not push this thing as it should have pushed.

“Now we do have the amendment now which is voted through in the House of Lords saying water companies cannot continue to behave in the way they the way they have behaved.

“But what I would like to see is for Britain to go back, not back obviously into the EU, but at least go back into into an agency which gives us the statistic levels…”

There has been growing public outrage in recent years at the volume of raw or partially-treated sewage pumped into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters.

Tory MPs have hit back over a fresh Twitter campaign about a vote in October 2021, when 265 Conservative MPs voted to water down an amendment on the issue in Parliament.

The House of Lords passed a three-and-a-half page amendment to the Environment Bill, tabled by the Duke of Wellington.

The vast majority of the amendment passed. But the Tory government ordered MPs to strip out seven crucial lines before passing it.

Those lines would have placed a legal duty on firms to “take all reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged from storm overflows”.

The government insisted it was “disingenuous and untrue” to suggest MPs had backed dumping human waste into rivers. Ministers said it would cost up to £660billion to upgrade England’s Victorian sewer system to stop all storm overflows overnight.

But ministers then staged a climbdown and said a new legal duty would be imposed on water companies to “progressively reduce” the amount of sewage pumped into waterways.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs added its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan “will revolutionise how water companies tackle the number of discharges of untreated sewage”.

Read More

Read More