ENVIRONMENT Secretary Michael Gove has been “taking lessons” from Labour’s manifesto as he tries to talk tough about rip-off water firms, the party said today.

But shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said Mr Gove had watered down Labour’s popular policies on the industry, which pledge real action “to tackle the failures of privatisation in our utilities.”

In a speech at the Water UK conference, Mr Gove told company bosses they have not been acting “in the public interest” and warned them of “changes to the regulatory framework” if they did not clean up their act.