While the Labour Party were at the Liverpool waterfront enjoying their first party conference in power for more than a decade, the torrential downpours sending politicians and pundits running for shelter across soggy venues in Merseyside were having devastating impacts on the residents of central and southern England.

A month's worth of rain in a day saw power outages sweep across the Midlands and the South West, while floodwaters disrupted travel and inundated homes, and flood warnings sounded from Warwickshire to Wimbledon.