Feargal Sharkey says 'Labour has lost control' in furious BBC Breakfast rant

Singer and environmentalist Feargal Sharkey launched into a furious rant on BBC Breakfast, insisting Keir Starmer's Labour government has "lost control". He fumed after the publication of a major report into the water industry in England and Wales, which aims to introduce mandatory water meters and replace regulator Ofwat.

Unhappy with the proceedings, Sharkey said: "The government has lost control of this industry - let's face it, we had a situation last Thursday where the chief executive of Southern Water defied the bonus ban, the company doubled his salary. On Friday we had a situation where we had a 60% increase in serious pollution incidents and yesterday, the government in the lead up to this was laying claim to a whole raft of initiatives that were actually things put in place under the previous Tory government.

"I'm afraid today I had no expectations for this at all and today I've not been disappointed. Sir Jon [Cunliffe, author of the report] I think has confused this issue, he seems to feel that this is an issue of public trust, where in reality the beating heart of this debacle is that corporate greed, the financial engineering, the exorbitant salaries, all of the £84billion worth of our money water companies have made off with.

"We were promised a proper root and branch wide-ranging review including ownership and structure, we were promised champagne, all we've actually got is sour milk."

A lifelong fly fisherman, Sharkey has been a campaigner against the pollution of British rivers for decades, campaigning to stop water companies dumping sewage into UK waterways and coasts. The Undertones star, who launched a solo music career in 1984, is Chairman of the Amwell Magna Fishery.

He even appeared alongside Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse on their show Gone Fishing in its third and sixth series.