David Cameron was this afternoon chairing an emergency Whitehall meeting on the devastating floods which have hit Britain as fresh storms were rolling in.
The Prime Minister raided a fund usually reserved for payments to Brussels to announce £100 million of extra cash to help flood-hit communities.
Some £75 million will fund repairs, £15 million will go on maintenance and £10 million has been earmarked for “urgent work” in Somerset, the Prime Minister said.
But Ed Miliband accused the Government of acting too slowly over the crisis and Labour sought to brand Environment Secretary Owen Paterson the “fool of the floods”.
Stormy weather has left thousands of homes without power and transport networks in chaos amid battering winds and severe flood warnings.
The Environment Agency has nine severe flood warnings in place - meaning a “danger to life” - covering much of the south coast of England from Cornwall to Dorset.
Western Power Distribution said about 44,000 customers in the South West had been affected by power cuts since yesterday and 5,000 homes remained without power.
In Dawlish, Devon, police declared a major incident after 20 people were evacuated from their homes.
Weather forecasters MeteoGroup said the strongest gusts overnight were at Berry Head in Devon with speeds hitting 91mph.
Mr Cameron is to chair a meeting of Cobra - the civil contingencies committee that leads responses to national crises.
At Prime Minister’s questions, he told MPs: “Whatever is required, whether it is dredging work on the rivers Tone and Parrett, whether it is support for our emergency services, whether it is fresh money for flood defences, whether it is action across the board, this Government will help those families and get this issue sorted.”
He claimed that the Government had increased funding to counter floods to £2.4 million but Labour accused him of “fiddling” the figures.
