Pity the poor people of Streatham (and Croydon North), who this morning discovered that they have elected as their MP – effectively given him a job for life – someone who thinks ignorance is some kind of acceptable excuse for a government minister.
Above questioning: Steve Reed OBE didn’t think he should be accountable
And someone who really thinks it quite impertinent to be asked direct questions about their prediliction for accepting thousands of pounds’ worth of freebies from the very people they are supposed to be overseeing in their government job.
Steve Reed OBE found himself being grilled by Kay Burley on Sky News’s morning news slot. It made for five minutes of riveting telly, as Reed squirmed. It was, very possibly, the worst television appearance made by an MP representing a Croydon constituency since Chris Philp last appeared on the tellybox. And that’s saying something.
It was barely 24 hours since Labour List, the in-house website of the Labour Party, was publishing the names of ministers in Keir Starmer’s new government who had done the morning rounds of television studios the most since the General Election on July 4. According to this Labour List list, right-winger Reed had made no appearances whatsoever.
After seeing Reed’s car crash interview this morning, it is easy to see why the Streatham (and Croydon North) MP has suddenly gone all camera shy.
At the core of Burley’s televised inquisition was Reed having enjoyed copious hospitality in December 2023 at the expense of Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings.
Big shot: How the Torygraph reported that Reed has been accepting hospitality from a firm that owns a water company
CK Hutchison Holdings owns 75% of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, the owner of Northumbrian Water.
Northumbrian Water spilt sewage into England’s waterways for 280,000 hours in 2023.
Reed was Labour’s shadow spokesperson on the environment at the time – responsible for policy on water companies and shit. Yeah, loads of shit…
Reed enjoyed tickets and hospitality to a Chelsea v Crystal Palace Premier League match at Stamford Bridge valued at £1,786.
Reed attended the football match at the same time he was publicly calling for tighter controls on the water industry, to force utlity companies to clean up their acts and stop pumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into our rivers and streams, lakes and on to our coastlines.
“Frankly, it is the latest question mark over an industry riddled with double standards and conflicts of interest,” one anti-pollution campaigner said when the news of the largesse enjoyed by Reed broke last month. They described Reed’s junketing with the polluters as “blatantly inappropriate hospitality”.
Reed has said he will crack down on the water industry, but not by nationalising the privatised monopoly suppliers as many demand, but by blocking director bonuses and introducing criminal charges for blocking investigations, reforms that have been criticised by campaigners as weak and inadequate.
In this morning’s squirm-laden TV interview, Reed, now the Labour government’s environment secretary, at first tried to claim, “No, I didn’t” when he was asked why he took tickets from Northumbrian Water’s parent company.
Squirm-laden: Kay Burley was asking questions that Reed thought were ‘unhelpful’
It was an odd thing to deny. Reed had made the declaration of the hospitality in the Register of Members’ Interests.
Pressed on the clear business relationship between Hutchison and the water company, Reed stuttered: “On that occasion, there was nobody there from a water company involved in offering those tickets, there was nobody from a water company at that event.”
Does Reed have no understanding of how businesses work?
Pressed on the relationship between the parent company and Northumbrian Water, Reed said – out loud, on live TV – “I wouldn’t have known that.”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Burley asked.”You should have known that… So you didn’t know who you were taking tickets from?”
“Well… I… I didn’t know they had a relationship with a water company,” Reed said, pleading incompetence rather than corruption.
Burley pointed out that the programme’s producer had been able to discover the ownership status in just five minutes. She asked an obvious question: “Why should the people of Northumbria think you are fit for your job?”
Reed blathered on about how tough his proposed legislation is.
“The implication is that I would somehow go soft on water companies,” he said. “What I’ve actually done is bring in the toughest legislation to stop the payment of unfair bonuses, to make water bosses face criminal liability for the kind of things that they’re doing.”
When Burley asked whether he would accept gifts from the same donors again, Reed said “with hindsight” he “probably wouldn’t”.
The presenter then asked why he wouldn’t take the tickets again. Astonishingly, Reed’s best answer was: “Well, I don’t think it’s helpful that you are able to ask me questions like this.”
Kay Burley laughed openly.
While the rest of us are just left to weep…
Read more: Suited and booted: Norbury Alli’s donations and No10 access
Read more: Reed group fined for slow declaration of £800,000 donations
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
What did the undeserving Steve Reed get his OBE for? Years of ruining Lambeth when he was on the Local Government gravy train, before upgrading to the more lucrative Parliamentary gravy train? Can they ever remove OBE awards….?!
He has had his nose in the trough for years, over 50 years with the Labour Party which I left ( he was one of the reasons) he has been the worst MP that ever represented me or peoples issues. Always get tickets and hospitality from CPFC and their lobbyists Terrapin during Planning Applications for new stand. Never once met with families affected by the development . Never met the families from the slum Tower Blocks in Regina Road South Norwood. Good riddance from the North of the Borough.
Some bad news for you (or at least your former neighbours in Croydon North), Les. Much as Streatham-centric Reed tries to ignore the bit of his constituency that is in Croydon, technically, he is still MP for (and Croydon North).
New Labour just like old Conservatives
Yet again we are left with the question, are they just really stupid or are they just lying to us?
Perhaps politicians are both, Peter? Really stupid if they can’t see that a company giving them a freebie is bound to have an ulterior motive, and just lying to us because they think they are invulnerable so we can’t do anything to damage them.
They may be doing both, but I wouldn’t assume all politicians are the same – some of us are trying to show that some politicians can be held to a higher standard
Good to hear Peter. Perhaps you can give some concrete examples of your party’s ‘higher standards’. Beyond your posts on IC, of course
Steve Reed and Chris Philp are fighting it out for the worst tv appearances by politicians. Do Croydon’s other 2 MPs (Sarah Jones and the other one, in the east) hope to compete with Reed and Philp, and are there ANY other MPs from other areas who are as hopeless in front of the camera?
It does seem strange that Burley focuses on the tickets and not on the actions that Reed is taking with regard to the water companies. The value of the tickets was less that £2k. The damage done by water companies is far more than that. Similarly the bonuses paid to water company directors.
I thought it disappointing she didn’t ask whether he was at the game supporting Palace, or Chelsea