Shropshire fire crews called to flooding in northern England

Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service was called to assist its counterparts in Lancashire late yesterday afternoon. A spokesman for the service said: "Two fire appliances, including the heavy pumping unit and the incident support unit, were mobilised from Prees and Shrewsbury."

The fire service was called to help by a central body co-ordinating the response to flooding, the spokesman said.

David Cameron has defended funding for flood prevention as he visited York to see recovery efforts after towns and cities across the north of England were inundated over Christmas.

The Prime Minister rejected claims that there was a "north/south divide" in efforts to prevent flooding as areas took advantage of a respite from the rain.

But with more rain forecast for the middle of the week there may be worse to come, and the Environment Agency still has nine severe flood warnings in place – meaning there remains a danger to life.

Some 500 military troops have been mobilised to aid emergency services, with another 1,000 on standby should the situation worsen. Mr Cameron was heckled as he arrived in flood-hit areas of York where large swathes of the city are submerged and hundreds of homes have been evacuated.

One woman shouted: "No more cuts to public services" as he spoke to a team from the Scarborough mountain rescue, who had deployed with a dinghy on a submerged street in the city centre.

As he visited a sand bag filling station on the outskirts of the city after meeting with officials coordinating the response, Mr Cameron hailed the "amazing" response of the emergency services and volunteers.

He said it was untrue that funding for flood defences had seen a 20 per cent cut but insisted a major review would look at whether more needed to be done and whether the strategy should be changed.