If Labour triumphs in this week’s election, as polls suggest, then top of the incoming business secretary Jonathan Reynolds’s in-tray will be the possible collapse of Thames Water. The Thames timebomb is ticking – and could explode before new MPs have even become fully acquainted with the corridors of Westminster.

To recap, Britain’s biggest water company has been labouring under an £18bn debt mountain and has become the chief target of mounting anger from the public and politicians…