“A sewage bonus ban would stop water company executives being paid a penny more in bonuses until our waterways are protected from sewage dumps. These bosses should be made to hand back the millions of pounds already received in bonuses to help clean up their mess,” Ms Dodds said.

Earlier this year, MPs called for water company bosses to have their bonuses cut for illegally polluting rivers.

An Environmental Audit Committee report from January warned that a “‘chemical cocktail’ of sewage, agricultural waste, and plastic” was polluting Britain’s rivers.

It stated: “Water companies appear to be dumping untreated or partially treated sewage in rivers on a regular basis, often breaching the terms of permits that on paper only allow them to do this in exceptional circumstances. Successive governments, water companies and regulators have grown complacent and seem resigned to maintaining pre-Victorian practices of dumping sewage in rivers.”

Speaking in January, committee chair Philip Dunne, Conservative MP for Ludlow, said: “If there’s been persistent breaches, then is it right that senior executives should receive significant bonuses when they’ve been turning a blind eye to a problem?”