UK floods minister warns rainfall worse than 'ever seen before' as hundreds of warnings issued across Britain

This December has been the wettest on record, according to the Met Office

Britain’s floods minister has said the expected rain fall is at levels “nobody’s seen before” as the UK braces itself for a month’s precipitation in a matter of hours.

The Met Office issued its most severe alert, warning Lancashire residents there was a “danger to life” as a result of the rising water. The Environment Agency has issued over 200 warnings – seven of the most extreme – across the UK, advising people to prepare to evacuate.

Rory Stewart, who has faced criticism after defences constructed after the devastating 2009 flooding failed to protect homes in Cumbria, said: "We're looking potentially again today at maybe a month's rainfall coming in a day.”

Mr Stewart, speaking on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme, continued: "Certainly what we've seen is rainfall levels that nobody's ever seen before.

"If somebody had said two years ago when we were designing these flood defences that we could get 13 inches of rain in a day, the answer from the engineers would have been 'Why are you making that kind of prediction? We have never seen this before.'”

The average December rainfall is around 145mm but just under that – 120mm – is expected to fall over several hours in Lancashire on Saturday. It has been the wettest December on record, according to the Met Office.

"I think this is why people are right to start focusing on uncertainty and why people obviously are very interested in the question of climate change," Mr Stewart added.