With his home in Sidmouth and his office in Exmouth, which way will Simon Jupp jump when the new constituency boundaries come into effect ?

The new Honiton constituency provides continuity with the old Tiverton and Honiton one, comprising 66% of the voters from the old constituency and 22% of the old Devon East Jupp constituency. 

In contrast, the new East Exeter and Exmouth constituency adds 11% of Exeter voters to the residual 78% of Devon East creating a strange mixture of city and urban dormitory towns with the isolated seaside town of Budleigh Salterton.

Staying with Exmouth would seem to provide the greatest connection to his existing constituents but it is now regarded as one of 18 coastal marginal seats because of Tory failure to deal with the sewage scandal.

The waspish but astute Sasha Swire described him as: “Jumping Jupp flash”.

Whichever way he jumps and whatever the election result, it’s the beginning of a long goodbye from many of us.

Owl understands from multiple sources, the die is cast.

The 18 Tory seats where the sewage in rivers scandal could lead to Labour or Lib Dem victories

Richard Vaughan inews.co.uk

Tory MPs are in danger of losing their seats up and down the country due to a growing voter backlash against the Government’s handling of the river and seas sewage crisis.

i can reveal the target lists drawn up by the Liberal Democrats and Labour showing where the Conservatives are most vulnerable to being unseated at the next general election as a result of increasing anger over the dumping of raw sewage in the UK’s waterways.

Opposition parties have warned that the perceived failure of the Government to get a grip on the scandal is turning local businesses away from the Tories as they fear for their livelihoods, particularly in coastal towns.

The issue is being seized upon by local candidates hoping to peel off votes from Conservative MPs from Cumbria to East Sussex and the West Country.

The Lib Dems even have some major scalps in their sights, with Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Bath and North East Somerset an optimistic target, and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab’s Esher and Walton a far more achievable seat with its 2,743-vote majority.

Tory MPs in the so-called Blue Wall, which takes in much of the party’s southern heartlands, are being heavily targeted by the Liberal Democrats, which believe the growing anger over local water pollution can deliver them further votes in areas that are typically pro-Remain.

The party believes it is such a major issue on the doorstep that they have drawn up sewage dumping data by each seat on their list, with plans to hammer the message home to voters about the amount of pollution taking place in their area.

One such seat is Eastbourne on the south coast, where the incumbent MP is Conservative Caroline Ansell, who is sitting on a majority of just over 4,300.

More on Save Britain’s Rivers

Local Lib Dem candidate and local councillor, Josh Babarinde, said the issue of sewage was among the first to come up on the doorstep as it is an area that is highly reliant on the tourism trade, with one in three jobs linked to tourism and hospitality.

“People have been complaining about getting ill after swimming in our waters due to the pollution that is being poured onto our beaches. It is putting people off going into the water, and this is a major concern for local businesses who worry people will decide against visiting the area,” Mr Babarinde told i.

“When you speak to people on the doorstep, they don’t distinguish between local elections and general elections they are just appalled with what is happening. They’re saying enough is enough and want something to be done about it.”

The local council is seeking to force executives from Southern Water to appear at the town hall to give reasons for the sewage spills, while demonstrations are being planned by swimming and water sports associations to raise further awareness of the problem in the run up to the local elections.

In East Devon, where Simon Jupp sits on a less than commanding 6,708-vote majority, local campaigners erected fake blue plaques on the seafront, name-checking the local MP as failing to prevent raw sewage being dumped in the region’s rivers and seas. [Owl emphasis]

The Lib Dems are also increasingly confident of securing the seat of Hazel Grove near Stockport, where the current MP, William Wragg, is due to stand down. The party controls Stockport council and this week became the first local authority to launch an investigation into sewage discharges into the River Mersey. It comes after official figures showed United Utilities, which supplies the water in the region, pumped waste into the Mersey 977 times in 2022, amounting to more than 13,000 hours of discharges.

Tim Farron, the party’s environmental spokesman, said people were “waking up to the shocking sewage scandal this Conservative Government has aided and abetted and they are rightly furious”.

More on General Election

“Summer holidays have been ruined by beach pollution warnings, our magnificent Lake District rendered unusable as toxic algae blooms from the sewage contamination, and children have fallen sick from playing in rivers,” he added.

Labour is also viewing the sewage scandal as a potential wedge issue with the Tories, in particular highlighting the cost to businesses. The party believes the issue could deliver it votes in Conservative held areas from as far afield as Barrow and Furness in Cumbria, Hastings and Rye in East Sussex, and Camborne and Redruth in Cornwall.

A Government response to shadow Environment Secretary, Jim McMahon, revealed that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had made no assessment of the impact sewage spills were having on local businesses, despite it being raised as a major issue.

Mr McMahon said: “The Tories have turned their backs on coastal communities and businesses by allowing sewage pollution to hurt tourism. Coastal businesses regularly tell me of the damage to their livelihoods when the local beach has to close at short notice due to sewage pollution.

“You can’t claim to be on the side of business when you allow the places we care about to become open sewers.”

Tory MPs in such seats insist the opposition parties are being “disingenuous” over the issue of sewage in the country’s waterways, and believe the policies being put forward are unworkable.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We were the first Government to have a plan to tackle this issue.

“Labour have made much noise about what they would do differently, but their alternatives so far amount to nothing more than billions in further uncosted policies or massive increases to people’s bills.

“Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have suggested little more than new taxes, a policy that at current rate would take 500 years to fix the problem.”

List of areas with corresponding water companies and MPs:

Mole Valley 

Thames

Paul Beresford 

Esher and Walton

Thames

Dominic Raab

Chelmsford

Anglian

Vicky Ford

East & Mid Devon

South West

Simon Jupp (East Devon), Mel Stride (constituency covers parts of Mid Devon included in sewage list)

Wokingham

Thames

Sir John Redwood 

Eastbourne

Southern

Caroline Ansell

Lewes

Southern

Maria Caulfield

East Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Sir Greg Knight

Cheadle and Hazel Grove (Stockport LA) 

United Utilities

Mary Robinson (Cheadle), William Wragg (Hazel Grove)

Woking

Thames

Jonathan Lord

North Norfolk

Anglian

Duncan Baker

East Cambridgeshire

Anglian

Lucy Frazer

Cheltenham

Severn Trent

Alex Chalk

Cotswold

Thames, Severn Trent and Wessex

Sir Geoffrey Clinton-Brown

Winchester

Southern

Steve Brine

Eastleigh

Southern

Paul Holmes

Bath and North East Somerset

Wessex

Jacob Rees-Mogg

North Devon

South West

Selaine Saxby

The inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled MPs over rule-breaking parties in Downing Street is homing in on a gathering in his private flat, the Observer understands.

Michael Savage www.theguardian.com 

Follow-up exchanges with witnesses working with the inquiry are now taking place as the privileges committee, led by Labour grandee Harriet Harman, works its way through a huge tranche of evidence handed to it by the government at the end of last year.

One of its focuses has become the so-called “Abba party” held in Johnson’s flat above 11 Downing Street on 13 November 2020, a gathering that included food, alcohol and music allegedly so loud that it could be heard downstairs in the press office. Johnson, the then prime minister, is known to have been present for at least part of the evening.

The gathering was not investigated by Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who examined reports of rule breaking during Covid lockdowns. Crucially, however, it is now central to the privileges probe because Johnson was asked about it directly in the House of Commons. His response, which he continues to stand by, was that “whatever happened, the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times”.

It is one of four specific denials of rule breaking Johnson gave to MPs that the committee is examining. At the time of the flat gathering, the second national lockdown was in place requiring people to stay at home. Indoor gatherings of two or more people from other households were prohibited except for permitted exceptions, including where it was “reasonably necessary … for work purposes”.

The gathering came in the hours after the departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain, two of Johnson’s most senior advisers, who left after losing a power struggle with Johnson’s then fiancee and now wife, Carrie Johnson.

Gray’s report stated that “a meeting was held” in the flat to discuss “the handling of their departure” and that five special advisers attended. Johnson joined them at about 8pm. However, Gray said she had only collected limited information because she had been interrupted by the start of the Metropolitan police’s own inquiries into rule breaking. Once the police had finished, Gray concluded it was “not appropriate or proportionate” to return to the incident.

Cummings, now an arch critic of Johnson and his wife, has since said he was baffled by the fact that the gathering was not probed sooner. “Dozens of people downstairs could hear it, so all the police had to do was interview any one of them,” he said in an interview. “You don’t have a work meeting, at the top of No 10, where the music is so loud that you can hear it in the fucking press office.”

Johnson’s denial that rules were broken in the flat that evening mean it is a key to the privileges committee’s work on whether MPs were misled. It has also emerged that all witnesses working with the inquiry have continued to cooperate, despite the fact that their identity may be passed on to the former prime minister when he is asked to respond to the claims against him. Names will only be omitted in “exceptional circumstances”, but it is understood that no witnesses have yet asked for their name to be redacted.

The committee is made up of seven MPs, including four Tories. While its report was commissioned in April, its investigation was transformed by the release of information by the government in November. Whatever its findings, the report will run into a clash in the Commons as MPs will have to vote on any sanction recommended.

It comes with the Met being urged to reopen its investigation into the Partygate scandal following the release of a podcast that raised questions about the force’s initial inquiry. The deputy chair of the London Assembly’s police and crime committee has written to the Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, asking if he was “taking new information into account when making a decision regarding the reopening of the investigation” into the Downing Street lockdown parties.

Second home owners in the South Hams [Conservative] will have to pay double council tax, as soon as legislation allows. South Hams District Council unanimously voted to formally adopt the proposals at its full council meeting today. (Friday)

EDDC cabinet proposal to do the same goes before the full council this Tuesday 21 February .

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

The decision means that the Council will adopt a 100 per cent Council Tax Second Homes Premium as soon as legislation allows. It means second homeowners will have ‘to pay a fair share’ of Council Tax.

The Council declared a housing crisis in September 2021 and backed their declaration by a 12-point action plan. One of those actions included lobbying the Government to allow local councils to be able to charge 200 per cent Council Tax on second or holiday homes to ensure they contribute fairly towards the services they receive.

Their lobbying proved successful when in May 2022, the Government published the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which included proposals, aimed at addressing the negative impact of second homes on the supply of homes available to meet local housing needs.

The Bill proposes that councils will be allowed to introduce a Council Tax premium of up to 100 per cent in respect of second homes, meaning second homes would pay double the amount of Council Tax for an area. But the Bill is not likely to become law until April 1, 2024, at the earliest.

Cllr Judy Pearce, the Conservative Party leader of South Hams District Council, said : “I’m very pleased that we as a Council have adopted these proposals. It’s yet another objective on our Housing Crisis that we can tick off.

“The level of second home ownership in the South Hams has detrimentally affected the long-term viability of our communities. House prices are pushed upwards by the sheer quantity of second homes. Local residents can be denied a home as prices are pushed outside of what they can reasonably afford, a problem that is especially acute for the younger generation and first-time buyers.

“In November, I went to Westminster to speak to a House of Lords Select Committee to discuss the challenges around short-term lets and the impact that has in the South Hams. It’s truly concerning that with just under 4,000 second homes in the District, this means that nearly 1 in every 12 homes is a second home.

“We have taken this action to level the playing field for our local residents, making it easier for them to find somewhere to live, let alone somewhere to buy. It’s not an attack on second home owners, but us standing in solidarity with our residents, because they all have a right to have somewhere decent to live.”

Cllr Julian Brazil, Leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition, said: “I’m delighted that the proposals have finally been agreed. On this issue, the entire Council speaks as one.

“This is absolutely the right way forward. It will make a massive difference to us. To people who say it is an attack on second homeowners, it is not. What it is, is asking them to pay a fair share to our communities. They’re in the lucky position to own not one, but two houses, when many of our local families here struggle to own just one.

“The fact that they pay a little bit more should be compared to the increase in value of their second homes. Before the latest hiccup in the economy, house prices in the South Hams increased by around 25 per cent in the last year. Increases of hundreds of thousands of pounds. We are asking them to pay a little bit extra to support the services that we struggle to deliver.

“I’d like to pay tribute to the Leader of the Council. She has worked incredibly hard lobbying MPs for them to understand the issues. I’ve been campaigning for this over 15 years – it’s the right decision.”

Council Tax is charged to households to help fund the services that the area’s local Town, District, County Council, Police, Fire service and Crime Commissioner provide. These services are essential for a community to function and are designed to improve the quality of life for the people who live in their communities.

A consultation has launched that could allow more street trading in towns across East Devon.

Adam Manning www.midweekherald.co.uk

East Devon District Council (EDDC) wants your thoughts on the newly proposed draft street trading policy. The consultation deadline ends Sunday, February 26.

Some ideas planned include allowing Sidmouth Esplanade to become a ‘consent street’ – allowing traders, with EDDC’s permission, to sell products between May and September. It is currently restricted to one week during Sidmouth Folk Festival.

And the introduction of fees – a new consent or renewal application, as well as a block consent application (such as a mini food festival) will be £45 and it would be £25 to make a variation.

The majority of East Devon’s streets are already ‘consent’ streets allowing trading to take place, once an application has been submitted to and granted by EDDC.

Street trader stalls can include outdoor events and markets, street stalls, festivals and food vans at the roadside and in car parks. Or, anything where someone is selling goods on the streets, or outside in pedestrian areas or open spaces.

All approved applications will need to only sell items that are not ‘offered or directly competing with permanent services and businesses in the nearby area.’

Councillor Joe Whibley, the chair of EDDC’s licensing and enforcement committee, said:“One of our key aims, as part of the new policy, is to ensure the needs of traders, residents, businesses and visitors alike are all met.

“Which is why we want to hear from you. Ultimately, the aim is for us to have a street trading policy which complements the amazing businesses we have here in East Devon, while also being sensitive to the needs of our residents.

“The idea of street trading is to offer our residents and tourists a greater choice of products, attracting people to different towns and villages in East Devon, with the aim of improving the economic benefits for everybody.”

Honiton High Street and parts of Axminster town centre have ancient charters which allow weekly markets to take place.

Visit https://eastdevon.gov.uk/licensing/street-trading/street-trading-policy-consultation-2023/ to see the draft street trading policy proposed.

To have your say either email your views to licensing@eastdevon.gov.uk or send them in writing to Licensing, East Devon District Council, Blackdown House, Border Road, Heathpark Industrial Estate, Honiton, EX14 1EJ.