SIR KEIR STARMER said today that the government has its head in the sand over the scale of sewage being pumped into British waterways.

His accusation comes as environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey blamed the state of the water industry on three decades of poorly regulated profiteering and a “vacuum of political oversight.”

Dozens of pollution warnings were put in place across beaches and swimming spots in England and Wales in recent days after heavy rain overwhelmed sewer systems, prompting water privateers to release raw sewage into the natural environment.

And new data from the Environment Agency reveals that sewage monitors installed by British water firms did not work 90 per cent of the time or had not been installed at all.

Anglian Water has the highest rate of failure, with 49 per cent of all its sewage discharges going unmeasured.

Sir Keir said: “I think there is huge anger about the sewage situation because we’re seeing yet again sewage pumped into our rivers and into our seas.

“What it shows is that the government hasn’t been tough enough on the water companies and the enforcement against the water companies.

“Of course at the same time, they have been cutting money to the Environment Agency.”

The Labour leader said that “we can’t go on” with a government that “knows there is a problem [but] does absolutely nothing about it.

“Yet again, we say to the government, get your head out of the sand and do something about it,” he said.

Mr Sharkey warned that beach-goers have no clear picture of the amount of sewage being pumped into the water they are swimming in.

He told the BBC: “What you’re looking at is simply the result of 30 years of underinvestment by the water industry, 30 years of profiteering, 30 years of regulatory failure and 30 years of a vacuum of political oversight by a government failing to take proper control for this industry.”

Ministers are facing growing calls to clamp down on the water firms. In a report published in July, the Environment Agency said bosses should face jail for the worst pollution incidents, describing the sector’s performance in 2021 as the “worst we have seen for years.”

Water Minister Steve Double said: “We have been clear that water companies’ reliance on overflows is unacceptable and they must significantly reduce how much sewage they discharge as a priority.”