Lessons from the recent floods showed plans to move Bradford's fire control centre and answer 999 calls in Wakefield was a "bad idea," according to Tory leader David Cameron.

Speaking to the Telegraph and Argus at the Conservative conference inBlackpool, Mr Cameron said the regionalisation must be stopped.

The shake-up will close five centres in Birkenshaw, Bradford, Humberside, North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire which, the government believes, can no longer cope with modern emergencies on the scale of the London terror bombings.

A state-of-the-art control room at Wakefield- is expected to be up and fully operational by May 2011, which, it is claimed, will allow firefighters to respond more quickly to incidents.

Mr Cameron said: "One of the lessons of the floods was the regionalisation of the fire service is an extremely bad idea."

The Lib Dems have also opposed the changes with leader Menzies Campbell saying it will put lives at risk.

He said: "The government is compromising safety and could be putting lives at risk by introducing regional fire and rescue control centres."

Last year, the Commons local government committee branded the £1bn regionalisation project "high risk" because of the opposition of most local Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs).