A heated exchange erupted on GB News this morning between presenter Ellie Costello and Environment Secretary Steve Reed over his acceptance of football tickets linked to a water company.
Ellie confronted Reed about £1,786 worth of tickets he received from Hutchison 3G UK Limited, whose parent company is connected to Northumbrian Water.
Speaking on GB News, Ellie Costello asked: "How can the public trust you to hold water companies to account if you're being wined and dined by them?"
He responded: "Those tickets were from a telecoms company, not a water company. So your facts, I'm afraid are wrong."
Ellie Costello grilled the MP
GB News
She fired back: "The parent company is CK Hutchinson Holdings."
Reed said: "I would hardly be taking the toughest action against water companies and water company bosses of any Secretary of State in history if I had been in any way influenced by a telecom company offering me a pair of football tickets.
"I wasn't. And you can judge me by what I'm doing in Parliament and the reform I'm leading in the water sector. You've not seen that from any previous Environment Secretary ever."
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Ellie fumed back at the MP: "You have accepted almost £2,000 worth of tickets from Hutchinson 3G UK limited, whose parents company is CK Hutchinson Holdings. They are also the parent company of Northumbrian Water. So you are not researching who you are accepting freebies from?"
Reed repeated his point and said: "Like I said, it's a telecoms company and so your facts there I'm afraid are wrong and so is your inference."
He added: "If I had been in any way influenced the fact that these tickets came of a telecoms company, not from a water company, I'm afraid means that your point is just bogus."
Ellie pointed out: "Look, there will be inference from the public that you will go soft on water companies because you are accepting freebies from companies who are the parent companies of one of the worst offenders in this country, Northumbrian Water."
Steve Reed said "your facts and inference are wrong"
GB News
Frustrated the Environment Secretary stated: "I keep saying the same thing again and again and I'll give you the same answer. It was a telecoms company, and I'm taking the toughest action of any secretary of state against the water companies that any of us have ever seen.
"I've launched a commission today to completely reset the sector. So I say it again.
"Your facts and your inference are wrong. I'm going to get on and I'm going to clean up our rivers, lakes and sea and seas from pollution.
"I'm going to reset this sector so it works for the customers and for the environment in a way that it has not done going back decades. And I will do that without fear or favour from anyone."
Reed's acceptance of the football tickets occurred three months after he was appointed shadow environment secretary
GB News
Reed's acceptance of the football tickets occurred three months after he was appointed shadow environment secretary.
Northumbrian Water, linked to the company that provided the tickets, was recently fined £17million by Ofwat for discharging sewage into waterways for 280,000 hours in 2022.
Clean water campaigners have expressed concern over the meeting between Reed and Hutchison executives, citing worries about links between the government, regulators, and the water industry.
