Questions have been raised over the new environment and health secretary’s connected spouses following Rishi Sunak’s controversial reshuffle.
The prime minister appointed former financial secretary to the Treasury Victoria Atkins to take on the health brief, with predecessor Steve Barclay moving to become Environment Secretary.
The new Health Secretary is married to Paul Kenward, managing director of British Sugar, which also grows medicinal cannabis.
Barclay, meanwhile, has been tasked with tackling the sewage crisis but is married to the executive of a water firm shamed for polluting the sea.
His wife Karen works for Anglian Water, which has been criticised for pumping sewage into the environment.
The firm had to apologise for repeated sewage spillages as public anger over pollution in seas and rivers grows.
In April, they pleaded guilty to allowing 7.5 million litres – the equivalent of three Olympic-sized swimming pools – of untreated sewage to overflow into the North Sea.
I’m sure our new environment secretary will hold them to account, though.
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