Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Wednesday 6th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. We are running way over time. I appreciate it would be a great disappointment to Members whose names are on the Order Paper if they were not called, so I am trying my best to call them all, but may I please make a plea for brevity?

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

Q11. When the Prime Minister is taking a dip in his pool or is on the beach at his place in California, he does not have to worry about swimming in sewage. The rest of us do not have it so good, so why will he not back Labour’s plans for criminal liability for water company bosses who fail to clean up their act?

[The Prime Minister]

We have already brought in regulations that ensure there can be unlimited fines for water companies, and there have been dozens of criminal prosecutions. I would also say, however, that when we had a debate in the House on exactly a plan that would do all this, who did not show up to vote? It was the Labour party.