Boris Johnson should realise that a little empathy over the plight of those flooded will go a long way

Yes, such trips don’t always achieve much, but the people of Britain deserve a prime minister that can recognise suffering, writes Janet Street-Porter

Water is bailed out of flooded homes after the River Wye burst its banks in Ross-on-Wye (AFP)

When your home is under six feet of water, an official visit is probably the last thing you need. Pumps, sandbags and cash would be preferable to a handshake and mumbled sympathy.

And who benefits from these staged interactions? Often they are contrived photo-opportunities for the media by politicians seeking approval. Boris Johnson is master of this dark art – only last week he posed in front of a train, hoping his cheery thumbs-up and silly expression would distract voters from the unpalatable truth that the project would cost about twice as much as originally forecast.

Boris has been bred to bask in the limelight, and yet the recent bad weather has seen Britain’s blond bombshell uncharacteristically elusive. I’m beginning to think that Carrie Symonds has some “news” or that (now his divorce settlement is finalised) B and C are plotting a rebranding exercise to rival Meghan and Harry.

Over the past two weekends, storms Ciara and Dennis have resulted in the worst flooding since records began, leaving more than a thousand people homeless. They have wrecked businesses and caused massive disruption to transport. Schools have closed, railways halted, deliveries abandoned.

This weekend, rain and wind are predicted, which will delay the clean-up. In south Wales, in particular, the damage has been horrendous. Jeremy Corbyn and Prince Charles have visited the flood victims there, while Boris Johnson has kept a low profile, letting George Eustice, the environment secretary hold the fort.

Last Monday, the minister (who had been in the job for less than a week) claimed that flood defences were working, while floodwater continued to rise in south Wales, Worcestershire and Herefordshire and Shropshire. Eustice visited Yorkshire, where the army was drafted in to support residents, while Johnson has spent this week (while parliament is in recess) at Chevening, the grand house in Kent normally used by the foreign secretary.

What’s going on? I spent January in Australia, where the prime minister Scott Morrison was lambasted for taking a family holiday in Hawaii during the bush fires, and – following huge criticism in the press – was forced to return and apologise. He was subsequently pilloried for his hamfisted attempts to meet and greet the victims in New South Wales. Swiftly, Morrison ordered an official review and set up emergency committees, but the damage to his reputation (he was formerly a PR man) was done. Is Boris making the same mistake?

Delegating has its merits, but there are times when a prime minister has to show they have empathy with their voters – but maybe this is an emotion Boris lacks. He shows no sign of pulling on his Hunters, donning a Barbour and wading through the streets of Pontypridd. Strangely enough, he was only too keen to visit the flooded residents of south Yorkshire twice during his general election campaign last year. On that occasion, he met the residents of Fishlake, near Doncaster, where one shouted, “You took your time”.

Flooding has been a difficult issue for years, and successive governments have cut the budget for defence works. Even though the Tories announced they’d allocated £2.6bn to attempt to rectify matters by 2021, it’s too little, too late. Homes have been built on flood plains for hundreds of years, and until recently, many new developments received planning permission from local authorities who are now paying the cost of the clean-up. As our weather has changed, flooding has become more widespread and severe.

This time, Johnson was slow to react – refusing to call the Cobra emergency committee, which he did during the flooding in 2019. By the middle of this week, though, the government belatedly announced emergency payments to people and businesses affected by the storms. Those eligible will receive a cash payment of between £500 and £2,500 from local councils, and 100 per cent council tax and rates relief for at least three months. Residents can apply for grants up to £5,000 to make their homes more resilient to flooding in the future. Not much, but a start. None of this makes the effort of getting through the current situation any easier, with dozens of flood warnings still in place.

So what’s going on at Chevening? Ping pong tournaments? Detailed working on the next budget? Marriage plans? Perhaps Johnson fears an even more hostile reception than he received in Yorkshire last November? His spokesperson said he wanted to “avoid a media jamboree”. One Welsh resident tweeted that a visit from the PM would “be about as useful as a chocolate fireguard”. Others disagree. Vic Haddock is a Tory voter in Irongate, Shropshire who has suffered £100,000 worth of damage to his home and riverside business. He told Boris: “I’ve supported you – now come and help me.”

In a disaster, displaying empathy does help. It’s not something the older royals have found easy – watching the episode of Netflix’s The Crown based on the Aberfan disaster showed how the Queen struggled to see that a visit from the royal family would help those suffering terrible bereavement. It took her prime minister (Harold Wilson) to lead the way. Since then, the royal family has carefully negotiated when and how to appear following a catastrophe. This week, the Prince of Wales already had a visit to the Aston Martin factory at Barry planned, so it was easy to extend his trip to include Pontypridd.

Critics say the security presence distracts from a clean-up – but I disagree. Prince Charles has proved remarkably good at empathy, in a way his mother and his father have not. Jeremy Corbyn might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he readily connects with ordinary folk.

Could it be that Boris struggles to sound sympathetic because he’s only interested in being the centre of attention? And when you’re standing in a front room full of mud, the story is not about you and your big ideas. Mud isn’t as photogenic as a train.