WEST Cornwall MP Andrew George has complained that a National Emergency response has been granted to East Grinstead in West Sussex due to its loss of water supply, despite the fact that parts of Cornwall have been left without water in the wake of Storm Goretti.

In a letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr George said: “Many residents have – correctly in my view – observed that if this level of destruction, service outage, loss of life, risk to the lives and welfare of extremely vulnerable people, had happened in London or the home counties, the national media would have given it headline billing throughout the weekend and the government would have declared a national emergency response.”

Mr George estimated that around 8,000 homes were still without power at the time of writing, with many also lacking water supply to damage that necessitated bottled water supply hubs in the Helston area.

Despite having achieved an online meeting of the Emergency Ministerial Response Group on Sunday, added: “I fear services are still presenting the government with a glossy, best-expectation perspective which doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground.”

However, some 16,500 households in Sussex and 4,500 in Kent have been left with no water, with South East Water (SEW) blaming Storm Goretti and cold weather alongside "essential network changes".

Mr George requested an Urgent Question in Parliament. "I called on our House Speaker to grant me the right to call for a National Emergency response to help the communities across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly after the massive devastation caused by Storm Goretti,” he said. "But instead, he’s granted one for East Grinstead.

“I have every sympathy for the beleaguered people of East Grinstead and would never seek to diminish the terrible impact this has had and is having on them. But I’m certain the impact of the devastating storm experienced in Cornwall and on Scilly would dwarf that of the poor folk affected in the South East. Over 50,000 homes have experienced water and/or electricity outages here.

“Most of the areas affected by water supply outage have not been able to report or communicate because they had no means of doing so, thanks largely to those higher authorities who turned off the previously functioning analogue telephone system, which has proven to be more resilient following these incidents than the much-vaunted digital technologies."