Tour de France Road Closed Over Landslip Fears

A major route in North Yorkshire made famous by the 2014 Tour de France has been closed due to fears of a landslip after days of heavy rain.

The A59 Harrogate to Skipton road has been shut at Kex Gill after engineers confirmed significant movements on the surrounding hillside.

North Yorkshire County Council said cracks had also appeared on the slope.

The route along the A59 provided some of the most memorable images on the second day of the Tour de France.

Huge crowds gathered to cheer on the riders on what became known as the Cote de Blubberhouses.

Further north, a landslide has disrupted train services between Carlisle and Newcastle.

Network Rail says trains are running between Carlisle and Hexham and Newcastle and Prudhoe with replacement buses running around the landslide area.

It tweeted: "Hexham - due to a landslip, lines are currently blocked. Our engineers are working to remove around 70 tonnes of rubble blocking the line."

In the Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn clashed over flood defence spending.

Mr Corbyn said: "The reality is that flood defence scheme after flood defence scheme has been cancelled, postponed or cut."

Mr Cameron replied that expenditure on flood defences had increased from £1.5bn under Labour to £2bn under the present Government.

Later today Environment Agency chiefs are to be quizzed by MPs about recent flooding as heavy rain continues to fall in parts of the UK.

Chairman Sir Philip Dilley, who was criticised for holidaying in Barbados during the recent storms, will appear before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

He will be joined by the agency's chief executive Sir James Bevan and deputy chief executive David Rooke.

The committee will also hear evidence from local representatives from Cumbria, where some areas have been hit by repeated flooding.

Provisional figures issued by the Met Office on Tuesday show December was the wettest since records began in 1910.

More heavy rain is expected today in Northern Ireland, the North East and South East of England and parts of Scotland.

Meanwhile, police divers are helping in the search for a missing camper thought to have been caught up in the floods that swept Aberdeenshire.