WILD swimming, a hobby of mine, feels quintessentially Cumbrian.  

It takes full advantage of the splendour and beauty of Cumbria’s natural heritage – but that heritage is under threat due to sewage spills in our lakes and rivers.

As much as I love swimming in the great outdoors, there are some rivers, waters, and lakes in this beautiful county in which I will not swim because of pollution.

It is disgusting that Cumbria’s rivers and lakes are swilling with raw sewage because previous Conservative governments have been soft on the polluters.

Not only is it an ecological disaster, but it is also a disaster for the county’s important tourism sector.

Last year, there were over 1,800 sewage dumps in my constituency – the year before there were more than 1,300, showing the problem had been getting worse under the Tories.

Meanwhile, water companies have been paying out bonuses to their bosses and dividends to their shareholders.

Thankfully, the new Labour government has a plan to clean up our waterways. We have already introduced tough new legislation to crack down on pollution, including new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses, and to bring charges against persistent law breakers.

We’re also making the directors of water companies more accountable by enacting a new ‘code of conduct’, so customers can summon board members and hold bosses to account, as well as introducing new powers to bring automatic and severe fines.

And in the last couple of weeks we’ve launched the Independent Water Commission, the largest review of the sector since privatisation, to uncover the true scale of the previous 14 years of mismanagement.

Getting to grips with the water industry is all part of a programme of national renewal. But it’s also important on an individual level.

I began cold water swimming when I started going through the menopause. There is a growing body of evidence to show that menopausal women who regularly swim in cold water report significant improvements to their physical and mental symptoms.  

Another good reason to clean up our lakes and rivers.