COMEDY stars Steve Coogan and Lee Mack have thrown their weight behind a campaign to stop water profiteer United Utilities (UU) polluting England’s largest lake.

The pair called the sewage pollution of Cumbria’s Lake Windermere a “national scandal.”

They headed a Friends of the Lake District charity fundraiser today in Bowness-on-Windermere.

Mr Mack and Alan Partridge star Mr Coogan said the firm was the biggest polluter of Windermere “by a country mile.”

Mr Coogan said: “What we’re saying is they should reduce it to zero, there should be no pollution in Windermere, and they are putting out a lot of obfuscation to try to dilute that message.

“It’s a simple message. Stop putting sewage in the lake and remove the pollution [that is] already there.”

Mr Mack added: “It’s not just about Windermere. Windermere is obviously England’s biggest, most famous lake.

“If the biggest lake is struggling with it, what are other smaller lakes and waterways having to handle?”

Since privatisation of the water sector in 1989, a total of £72 billion has been paid to shareholders, according to analysis by Professor Peter Hammond, an economics specialist at the University of Warwick.

Friends of the Lake District, which has campaigned since 1934 to protect Cumbria’s landscapes, wants an end to all sewage discharges into the lakes.

United Utilities said: “The factors affecting water quality and Windermere are complex and without targeted action by multiple sectors we will not see the changes we all want.”