The country will have to adapt to ‘more frequent extreme weather events’ as a result of climate change, a Government minister has said.

It comes in the aftermath of Storm Ciara and more recently Storm Dennis, which have battered Britain with 90mph winds and flooding, with the latter leaving five dead.

Storm Dennis led to a record number of flood warnings being issued, with more than a month’s worth of rain falling in just 48 hours, just one week after Storm Ciara.

Rebecca Pow, a minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said the ‘top priority’ at the moment was responding to flooding, and keeping people safe.

She said her heart went out to those flood-hit communities, adding the Environment Agency (EA) and emergency services were currently working ‘around the clock’.

Speaking in flood-hit Worcester, on the River Severn, Ms Pow added that the Government had invested billions in flood protection schemes, with more money pledged.

But she added that such extreme weather was ‘something we’re going to have to adapt to’.

Forecasters have predicted further misery for flooded and flood-threatened communities, with more heavy rain expected to fall.

Hundreds of properties have been flooded as a result of lashing rain which battered the UK during Storm Dennis and caused rivers to reach record levels.

The EA has warned that levels on the Rivers Wye and Severn will remain especially high into the weekend, after both broke records this week.

Speaking on Tuesday, Ms Pow said the agency’s staff had been ‘working night and day, since the storm hit’.

Ms Pow added: ‘My heart goes out to anyone who has been flooded.

‘It’s absolutely ghastly – there’s nothing worse.

‘The Government takes this really seriously.

‘We’ve invested more money than ever before in flooding and flood defence work.

‘Since 2015, we have invested £2.6 billion – that’s until 2021 – and that was to better protect 300,000 properties.’

The minister was also asked whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson should visit to see for himself the effects of rising water levels on flood-hit communities.

She said: ‘We do have a system of what we call Cabinet Government which is whereby you trust the people you’ve given the jobs to, to go and do their jobs.

‘So I am here, and I will be feeding back what I have seen and heard.’

Asked whether the flooding was linked to climate change, she said: ‘Without a shadow of a doubt we have got climate change.

‘We are told to expect more frequent extreme weather events.

‘This is an example of one.

‘And it is something we’re going to have to adapt to.’

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