Sir Ed Davey falls into Windermere on purpose during election campaign stunt highlighting sewage pollution
28 May 2024, 15:50
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey fell off a paddleboard five times into Lake Windermere while campaigning about the quality of Britain’s waters.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Sir Ed theatrically fell not once but a total of five times into the water - just weeks after it was revealed that millions of litres of untreated sewage was illegally pumped into Lake Windermere for almost ten hours in February.
He admitted not all of the falls into the water were accidental.
He also accused the Tories of “sitting on their hands” and said that sewage spills are not being dealt with seriously.
Following his antics, Sir Ed outlined why he was bringing attention to this issue: “These disgraced firms are destroying our treasured lakes and rivers with their filthy sewage dumping – hitting human health, harming our precious environment and damaging the local tourism economy all at the same time.”
Read more: 'I would love a day off,' Rishi Sunak jokes as he shuts down idea of extra bank holiday
The BBC uncovered documents showing that a failure occurred in a system used to send sewage to Windermere Wastewater Treatment Works.
A set of emergency pumps then discharged untreated sewage into the middle of Lake Windermere, a Unesco World Heritage site and England’s largest lake.
It was reported that more than 10m litres of raw sewage was pumped directly into the middle of the lake.
