Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Housing, arrives for a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street, London, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025.

A cabinet minister has accused the Conservatives of “covering this country in shit” – and claimed Labour are the “disinfectant”.

Housing secretary Steve Reed, who was the environment secretary before Keir Starmer’s latest reshuffle, attacked the last government during a fringe event at Labour’s annual conference last night.

Speaking from Liverpool, he said: “In my old brief, we secured £100 billion of private sector investment to start cleaning up pollution from our rivers, lakes and seas.

“We had to do that because the

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