Environment secretary Therese Coffey has been mocked by GB News presenters after claiming that Storm Babet is due to a ‘different direction of rain’.
This follows calls for an "urgent review" into how authorities were able to handle the extreme weather conditions, which battered Scotland and many parts of northern Britain.
It is estimated that at least seven people have been killed as a result of the flooding and torrential rainfall.
The latest figures from the Environment Agency reveal that hundreds have been left homeless and over 1,250 properties in England were flooded.
Martin Daubney and Bev Turner couldn't contain their laughter on-air
GB News
Speaking in the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee, Coffey claimed the Government is “very good with the Met Office and the Environment Agency’s flood forecasting at predicting weather”, adding “normally because most of our rain tends to come in from the west.”
Coffey continued: “We’ve got that pretty much down to a fine art. This was rain coming from the other way, and we don’t have quite as much experience on that, therefore our accuracy of predicting where such heavy rain would fall was not to the same degree as if it had been.”
GB News presenters Martin Daubney and Bev Turner reacted to the statement from Coffey, unable to hold back their laughter.
After watching the statement on-air, Bev said in disbelief "did she just say the rain comes from the west and we've got that down to a fine art?". Martin joined in, joking: "It's the wrong type of rain!"
Bev and Martin were then joined by Senior Meteorologist Jim Dale, who reacted to Coffey's comments.
Bev said to Dale: "Can you just get the rain to just fall in the right way, please? And then everything would be all right for Therese Coffey. You had one job, Jim!"
Dale shared his thoughts on the comments, admitting: "I’m gobsmacked at that one to be honest with you and it actually shows. I'll tell you what she's doing there. She's shooting the messengers.
"She's basically saying oh you know meteorologists got it all wrong and you know, this is why we got the floods and this is why people lost their homes, and sadly there's some deaths along the way."
Therese Coffey claimed the Storm was caused due to 'rain from the east'
GB News / Parliament TV
Dale aired his frustrations with Coffey and the Government, stating: "She's the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this goes to the heart of Government to be honest with you. I use the word inept because that was an inept comment.
"Inept people in those positions of power, saying what they're saying, making people like ourselves in my profession and the Met Office included that this is somehow our fault that people are losing their livelihoods, their homes and even their lives due to meteorologists.
"Well, I've got news for her, that's just all wrong. And as I said, gobsmacked."
The Met Office has issued three further yellow weather warnings for the north of the UK, with heavy rainfall predicted on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.
