UK weather – live: Cobra meeting held as Britain braces for ‘extreme’ temperature surge
Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse is to chair meeting of the government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee on the heatwave, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said the move was a “progression” of the “significant work “ that had already been done to prepare.
The spokesman said that there were a number of contingency measures which have been enacted or are ready to be enacted.
It comes as the Met Office have predicted record-breaking temperatures are on the cards early next week, where the mercury could climb to 35C in some parts of the UK.
As parts of southeast England sweltered at 31C on Tuesday, the Met Office issued an updated “amber” extreme heat warning covering 17 and 18 July for much of England and Wales.
The government has warned that the heatwave is straining the NHS to a degree not usually seen outside of winter months, and the UK Health Security Agency has issued an extreme heat warning in England this week.
