Analysis by the Wildlife Trusts found 28 constituencies where there is a “nature majority”.  Exmouth & Exeter East is singled out as one that could be decided by voters who care about the natural world.  The charity previously found that 84 per cent of Tory voters were dissatisfied with the party’s handling of nature issues.

Adam Vaughan The Times print edition 2 July

Four fifths of Britons back the next government launching a public inquiry into the scandal of raw sewage dumping.

Wet weather helped to drive a record number of discharges into rivers and seas last year, with the duration doubling to 3.6 million hours. Recent polling has shown that a majority of people think Britain’s seas are now too dirty to swim in.

A YouGov poll of 2,000 adults found that 82 per cent supported an independent inquiry into sewage spills. Only 7 per cent opposed it, with 11 per cent undecided.

The research suggests that Labour and the Liberal Democrats have been right to prioritise the subject in their election campaigning. Support for a public inquiry rises to 92 per cent among Labour voters and 88 per cent among people who voted Lib Dem in 2019.

Despite all the major parties promising to tackle water pollution, the poll suggests a lack of faith in politicians to solve the problem. Only 7 per cent said they would trust “any or most” politicians to deal with the matter, compared with 59 per cent who would not. The remainder either would trust some politicians and not others, or did not know.

“Our new polling data reveals just how deep the scars of the sewage scandal run, with a staggering lack of public trust in politicians to tackle the issue of sewage pollution,” said Giles Bristow, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, which commissioned the survey.

“This should be a clear sign to each and every party that their commitments to improve the health of our rivers, lakes and seas are not bold enough.”

The charity has been touring the UK in a double-decker bus, travelling to destinations including Saltburn, Windermere, Hastings and Plymouth in an attempt to ensure that water pollution remains a prominent issue.

The polling ranked environment and climate change as the fifth most important issue for voters, behind the cost of living, health, the economy and immigration, but ahead of tax, housing and Britain’s relationship with the EU. The Times’ Clean it Up campaign has called for stronger regulation to improve water quality.

Conservationists have claimed that dozens of seats could be decided by voters who care about the natural world. Analysis by the Wildlife Trusts found 28 constituencies where there is a “nature majority”. To define a “nature majority” they took the predicted vote majority — based on Electoral Calculus’s poll of polls — then subtracted the number of Wildlife Trust members in each constituency.

In Suffolk Coastal, won at the last election by Therese Coffey, the former environment secretary, and previously a safe Tory seat, the charity calculated a nature majority of 3,695. In Exmouth & Exeter East, where David Reed is the Conservative candidate, the majority was 3,077. The assumption that other parties could benefit in such seats is based on the charity previously finding that 84 per cent of Tory voters were dissatisfied with the party’s handling of nature issues.

“We are putting politicians on notice that votes for nature could change the outcome of many key seats this election,” Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said.