LABOUR leadership hopeful Andy Burnham renewed his call today for greater public control over the water industry.

But the Greater Manchester mayor, campaigning as Labour’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, stopped short of calling for a return to full public ownership of the sector.

He said local monopoly United Utilities should cancel the final dividend due to be paid to shareholders this summer and redistribute the money to consumers in the form of lower bills instead.

“There is simply no justification for profiteering on this scale when people are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis,” Mr Burnham said.

“This confirms why people feel the system is rigged against them. It makes the case for essential public services coming back under public control.

“Forty years of neoliberalism in Britain has left us with essential services, which the public have no choice but to use, which work to serve private vested interests over the public interest.

“The water industry is a classic case of one where the shareholders always win and the bill-payers always lose.

“People are right to be angry that they are being asked to pay for bill hikes they cannot afford, only for their hard-earned cash to pour into the pockets of shareholders.”

He said excess profits were “unjustifiable” and added: “Water companies should put these surging profits into lowering bills, improving services and protecting communities.”

Should Mr Burnham be successful in Makerfield on June 18, and polls presently place him narrowly ahead of Reform, it seems certain he will challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party and the government.

He has privately made it clear that he will not call a snap general election if he does become prime minister.

Opposition parties will doubtless make ritual calls for him to do so, but Tory voices will be muffled since they changed leader several times when in government without seeing any need to seek a popular mandate for the shift.

Mr Burnham also called on the government to make it mandatory for housing developers to implement the highest standards for flood resilience in areas like Makerfield, which has faced flooding twice in recent years.

His campaign slogan is “Change Labour,” indicating the essential requirement in an area which heavily backed Reform in last month’s local elections, of keeping a distance from Sir Keir’s administration.

Mr Burnham’s Reform rival, plumber Robert Kenyon, has been dogged by revelations that he opposed Brexit as well as harbouring sordid fantasies about TV mathematician Carol Vorderman, and he faces a split in the far-right vote with the rival Restore Britain party.