Rachel Blake and Feargal Sharkey by the Thames

CAMPAIGNER Feargal Sharkey warned that the “scam” of a privatised water industry had flooded the Thames and other UK rivers in sewage.

The former frontman of the punk band The Undertones was speaking on the Embankment as he backed Labour’s Rachel Blake’s to the next “Two Cities” MP.

Sharkey said: “In the last 12 months alone, Thames Water has spent 192,000 hours dumping sewage into rivers within this area. Shareholders have ram-raided that company. They have fleeced it for every penny it had. As customers we have been fleeced. The FT referred to the issue as legalised rip off. These industries are out of control. There isn’t a single river in England that hasn’t been polluted by the water industry. They have taken £72billion of our money and made off with it. One particular chief executive has made £27million in 10 years. It’s been a con and a scam and a shambles. The complete incompetence of the previous government and the regulators.” We can change that on July 4, he added. “Vote for Rachel or I will find out where you live.”

It came in the week that shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said Labour did not want Thames Water in public ownership. In a debate in London Reynolds, who would play a leading role in Labour’s relations with business if his party wins the general election, said he “wouldn’t want to see a nationalisation” of Thames Water.

“I think there should be a solution that involves [something] short of that,” he said at an event in the City of London, without specifying the approach he would take.

Thames Water is teetering on the brink of collapse with massive debts and the government has drawn up plans for it to be placed into administration.

It was privatised alongside all other water companies in England in 1989 under Margaret Thatcher, when she sold off the nationalised water and sewage industry for £7.6billion.

Rachel Blake said: “We want to clean up the Thames. We want to make sure TW is investing in the infrastructure that Londoners need to have safe and clean water.”

A Labour government would deliver a safe water system.

Thames Water faced condemnation after the Oxford and Cambridge boat race was severely affected because of sewage in the river and high levels of E. coli. Rowers were told not to enter the water.

The company has also blamed heavy rainfall for all the sewage spilling out into the sea.

The same excuses were given for recent flooding of homes in Maida Vale.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We have experienced higher than average long-term rainfall across London and the Thames Valley with groundwater levels exceptionally high for the time of the year. Taking action to improve the health of rivers is a key focus for us and we want to lead the way with our transparent approach to data.”