David Hinton looks unlikely to claim five-year retention award but why did the board feel a need to offer it?

Can David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, stay in his job long enough to bag a £400,000 bonus for turning up to work? With four and a half years to go, one can’t say his chances of landing the retention payment – or “service award” – are good. In fact, it will be surprising if he’s still infuriating the residents of Tunbridge Wells four and a half weeks from now.

In the latest episode of this long-running double saga of outages that has left thousands of households in Kent and Sussex without running water for days, Ofwat has opened a first-of-its-kind investigation into whether South East complied with its obligation to provide “high standards of customer service and support”. That comes a day after Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence .

David Hinton looks unlikely to claim five-year retention award but why did the board feel a need to offer it?

Can David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, stay in his job long enough to bag a £400,000 bonus for turning up to work? With four and a half years to go, one can’t say his chances of landing the retention payment – or “service award” – are good. In fact, it will be surprising if he’s still infuriating the residents of Tunbridge Wells four and a half weeks from now.

In the latest episode of this long-running double saga of outages that has left thousands of households in Kent and Sussex without running water for days, Ofwat has opened a first-of-its-kind investigation into whether South East complied with its obligation to provide “high standards of customer service and support”. That comes a day after Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence .

David Hinton looks unlikely to claim five-year retention award but why did the board feel a need to offer it?

Can David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, stay in his job long enough to bag a £400,000 bonus for turning up to work? With four and a half years to go, one can’t say his chances of landing the retention payment – or “service award” – are good. In fact, it will be surprising if he’s still infuriating the residents of Tunbridge Wells four and a half weeks from now.

In the latest episode of this long-running double saga of outages that has left thousands of households in Kent and Sussex without running water for days, Ofwat has opened a first-of-its-kind investigation into whether South East complied with its obligation to provide “high standards of customer service and support”. That comes a day after Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence .

Farage was all smiles as the Tory rightwinger he once called a ‘fraud’ defected to Reform. Will it be big enough for the both of them? Keep watching

The best thing right now would be to read the turmoil in the Tory party as told by the spy novelist Len Deighton. He would give us more detail on Robert Jenrick’s defection media-handling plan: a statement on what a future in Reform meant to him, how he’d wrestled with his decision to leave the Conservatives behind. Kemi Badenoch would discover it by a process of intricate deduction, rather than the more likely story – that some mischief-maker leaked it to her. The trail of clues would be ever more ominous, as Jenrick skipped opportunities to show loyalty to his party leader, mysteriously didn’t show for longstanding commitments. The betrayal would unfold slowly in scarce-to-be-believed fashion until, wham: someone saw his to-do list. Iron turquoise shirt. Call Sophy Ridge.

Instead, Jenrick’s ejection from his party is slightly spoiled, from a storytelling point of view, by the chaos of conjecture and semi-analysis. What happened this afternoon was beyond Deighton. For hours, Nigel Farage would confirm only that he’d had conversations with Jenrick, and stated categorically that he hadn’t signed a deal with him. There were questions over whether Badenoch had successfully ruined Farage’s Westminster press conference, planned for 4:30pm today, where he would purportedly reveal Jenrick as his latest defector. And even more about what it would mean for Jenrick’s political ambitions, inside or outside the Tory party.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

Farage was all smiles as the Tory rightwinger he once called a ‘fraud’ defected to Reform. Will it be big enough for the both of them? Keep watching

The best thing right now would be to read the turmoil in the Tory party as told by the spy novelist Len Deighton. He would give us more detail on Robert Jenrick’s defection media-handling plan: a statement on what a future in Reform meant to him, how he’d wrestled with his decision to leave the Conservatives behind. Kemi Badenoch would discover it by a process of intricate deduction, rather than the more likely story – that some mischief-maker leaked it to her. The trail of clues would be ever more ominous, as Jenrick skipped opportunities to show loyalty to his party leader, mysteriously didn’t show for longstanding commitments. The betrayal would unfold slowly in scarce-to-be-believed fashion until, wham: someone saw his to-do list. Iron turquoise shirt. Call Sophy Ridge.

Instead, Jenrick’s ejection from his party is slightly spoiled, from a storytelling point of view, by the chaos of conjecture and semi-analysis. What happened this afternoon was beyond Deighton. For hours, Nigel Farage would confirm only that he’d had conversations with Jenrick, and stated categorically that he hadn’t signed a deal with him. There were questions over whether Badenoch had successfully ruined Farage’s Westminster press conference, planned for 4:30pm today, where he would purportedly reveal Jenrick as his latest defector. And even more about what it would mean for Jenrick’s political ambitions, inside or outside the Tory party.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

Farage was all smiles as the Tory rightwinger he once called a ‘fraud’ defected to Reform. Will it be big enough for the both of them? Keep watching

The best thing right now would be to read the turmoil in the Tory party as told by the spy novelist Len Deighton. He would give us more detail on Robert Jenrick’s defection media-handling plan: a statement on what a future in Reform meant to him, how he’d wrestled with his decision to leave the Conservatives behind. Kemi Badenoch would discover it by a process of intricate deduction, rather than the more likely story – that some mischief-maker leaked it to her. The trail of clues would be ever more ominous, as Jenrick skipped opportunities to show loyalty to his party leader, mysteriously didn’t show for longstanding commitments. The betrayal would unfold slowly in scarce-to-be-believed fashion until, wham: someone saw his to-do list. Iron turquoise shirt. Call Sophy Ridge.

Instead, Jenrick’s ejection from his party is slightly spoiled, from a storytelling point of view, by the chaos of conjecture and semi-analysis. What happened this afternoon was beyond Deighton. For hours, Nigel Farage would confirm only that he’d had conversations with Jenrick, and stated categorically that he hadn’t signed a deal with him. There were questions over whether Badenoch had successfully ruined Farage’s Westminster press conference, planned for 4:30pm today, where he would purportedly reveal Jenrick as his latest defector. And even more about what it would mean for Jenrick’s political ambitions, inside or outside the Tory party.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .