Cameron grilled as he visits town hit by floods

Mr Cameron was leaving the town hall in Todmorden when Kathleen Simpson surprised him as he was getting into his car.

She tackled the Prime Minister with a number of pointed questions about local issues, including the floods, as he stood on the pavement.

Afterwards she said she wanted help clearing away the “mountain” of rubbish outside her home and said she had asked for sandbags but had not been given any.

“We have been wiped out down there,” she said

Mr Cameron had just left a meeting with council officials and emergency services workers about the deluge which hit the town on Friday night.

He visited the flood-damaged home of Sarah-Jayne Robins in Todmorden.

She was trapped for 12 hours upstairs in her home when water poured out of the nearby canal.

Before he left Todmorden Town Hall Mr Cameron said: “First of all, one’s sympathy just goes out to people who had their homes flooded and have seen so many treasured possessions destroyed.

“But what you see is an incredibly strong community come together with real purpose – very positive – to help each other out.

“It really needs to be said to thank everyone who took part in it.

“The Government stands by to help in any way we can.

“The council’s doing a good job.

“We will fill in any gaps if that’s required.”

The Prime Minister added: “This is a beautiful area of our country and it’s absolutely open for business.”

Asked about insurance issues faced by residents, Mr Cameron said there were short-term hardship funds available.

“Longer term, we need another deal with the insurance companies so they do what it says on the tin – insurance, they provide people with cover against flooding.

“The Government is in discussion with them and we are going to have a robust discussion to make sure they have the cover that people deserve.”

Mr Cameron talked about investment in flood relief but said: “That will never protect everybody.

“There was a month’s rain that fell in 24 hours.”

Miss Robins showed Mr Cameron around the sodden ground floor of her back-to-back home, which is on a road between the River Calder and the Rochdale Canal.

She said flood water poured in on Friday evening and she had no choice but to shelter upstairs with her 18-month-old miniature poodle, Pepper.

Miss Robins, 31, said she had to stay there until almost lunchtime on Saturday.

She said: “My family said they’d try and rescue me but they just couldn’t get near.

“Everything downstairs is just wrecked. Now it’s just got to dry out. It is devastating, really.”

Miss Robins, who has lived in the rented property for 18 months, told the Prime Minister she is struggling to find the £100 insurance excess she needs.

Mr Cameron asked her about the insurance situation and how her neighbours had been affected.

Before leaving Todmorden, he surprised Karen Waspe by queuing up for a bacon and egg sandwich at her food van parked on Halifax Road in Todmorden.

“It was not until he was straight in front of me that I realised who he was,” she said. “I just said ‘what can I get you?’

“He said he wanted a bacon and egg sandwich. He was very pleasant.”

She added: “It’s not every day that you get the Prime Minister turning up.”

Around 900 homes were affected by flooding in the Calder valley at the weekend.

Huge rainfall brought knee-deep water to Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd as well as Todmorden, with the Calder river rising 2ft every 15 minutes at one stage.

Areas of Lancashire and Cumbria were also badly affected by torrential downpours.

David Dangerfield, regional director of the Environment Agency, said it was investing in flood defences in Todmorden but he warned it could never completely protect against flooding in very extreme circumstances.