Actor Danny Dyer has delivered a petition to Number 10 Downing Street calling on the Government to “return the water industry to public ownership”.
The 49-year-old, best known for his roles in EastEnders and Rivals, made the delivery alongside Labour MP Kevin McKenna on Wednesday.
The petition, which has gathered more than 345,000 signatures online, criticises the privatisation of the water industry and claims it is “no longer fit for purpose”.
Campaign and protest background
Dyer, who has been running a caravan park on the Isle of Sheppey alongside his daughter, reality TV star Dani Dyer, for the Sky series The Dyers’ Caravan Park, attended a protest in Kent last month calling for water companies to be nationalised.
The e-petition claims that water companies are “exploiting” an “essential natural resource” and failing to reinvest profits to upgrade infrastructure to “modern standards”.
The description read: “We call on the Government to return the water industry to public ownership.”
“This crisis has spiralled out of control, causing severe environmental damage, harming tourism and coastal economies and putting public health at risk.
“Enough is enough.”
MP praises Dyer’s campaign
Mr McKenna, the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, told the Press Association: “Danny’s been great. He’s picked this up and run with it.
“There’s a lot of other things he’s been doing on the island and things he could have campaigned on.
“He’s doing it because it matters to him, and so I’m really grateful that actually he’s making such a big noise about this.
“This is a national movement and I’m glad that Danny’s actually keeping it in the spotlight.”
The petition was started by campaigners SOS Whitstable.
Mr McKenna added: “It’s really bad that we’ve got to a point in this country where we’re having to do this, with the way that our waterways have gone and the pollution in the waterways.
“But I’m really glad that actually we’ve been able to show how much concern there is about this in my constituency and more widely than that.
“So I think it’s a really good step and it’s really important.
“I think ultimately public ownership is the right thing and certainly what we have to do.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Water UK have been contacted for comment.
