International development charities have called the Daily Mail misguided and ignorant for launching a petition asking for the some of the overseas aid budget to be redirected to the UK flood response.
They say the response to the UK’s floods should not come at the expense of poor people abroad.
The petition, which is highlighted on the Daily Mail’s homepage and in its print publication today, is addressed to the Prime Minister, and calls on him to divert some of the £11bn foreign aid budget to ease the suffering of British flood victims, and to build and maintain flood defences to prevent a repetition of this crisis.
Recent polling suggests the Daily Mail’s stance is popular with a high proportion of the population. According to a new ITV News poll of 2,000 adults, 75 per cent think the UK’s foreign aid budget should be diverted towards dealing with flooding in Somerset.
And far-right political party Ukip has called for some foreign aid to be reallocated to the flooding response.
Charities reject Daily Mail call
In response, Matthew Frost, chief executive of international development charity Tearfund, said the Mail’s call “shows a complete lack of understanding”.
“The aid budget helps people who have been poor to the point of going hungry for a long time, people who have lost loved ones to war or natural disaster and people who are desperately trying to make sure their children can go to school," Frost said. "Their needs are completely different from those of people who are struggling in the UK as a result of flooding.”
He added that while the country had a duty to help those affected by the recent floods, “it didn’t justify taking food out of the hands of a hungry child”.
Oxfam also said that the response to the awful consequences of the UK floods should not come at the expense of people in poor countries.
Max Lawson, Oxfam's head of policy and advocacy, said: “The choice shouldn't be between helping those overseas or people in the UK, when there’s enough money to do both. British bankers have pocketed nearly £70bn in bonuses since the financial crisis – far more than our aid budget. At the same time billions of pounds of tax are dodged by companies and individuals who are not paying their fair share. This money could go a long way to help British people recover and protect themselves from future extreme weather."
As well as calls for the foreign aid budget to be diverted, there have been calls for the Disasters Emergency Committee to launch an emergency appeal for those affected by the UK flooding.
A DEC spokesman said that its charitable objects did not cover the UK and added that its members were equipped to deal with disasters in developing countries where the needs were very different than those here.
Red Cross flood response
The British Red Cross has also been moved to address public concerns that it raises money for disasters overseas but not in the UK.
In a blog on its website, Mark Cox, argued that a lot of its work in the UK goes on “under the radar” and that the strategy for tackling UK disasters was very different for international ones.
“In Somerset, the Red Cross is currently pulling out all the stops to help people caught up in the flooding. Our volunteers are distributing food and hot drinks, giving out blankets, running rest centres and checking on vulnerable residents – and we’ll stay there till the crisis is over.
“But, terrible as the floods have been for all those involved, the actual cost of all our work there will be tens of thousands of pounds, which we can afford from our general funds.”
He continued that Typhoon Haiyan, one of the worst storms ever recorded, has left millions with literally nothing to eat and nowhere to live.
“The cost of tackling such a huge disaster will likely run into the hundreds of millions. That’s why the British Red Cross immediately launched a loud and wide-reaching emergency appeal (which, incidentally, brought in £10m from the generous public).
“This is the point: you’re always more likely to hear about our work during big international emergencies, because the huge costs involved mean we have to make a big noise to attract donations.”
The Daily Mail’s petition has generated a large amount of discussion online. Many are tweeting in support of Ukip's call to cancel foreign aid, while Times columnist Gaby Hinsliff has argued on Twitter that the government has recourse to the Treasury contingency fund or could access the EU disaster fund in place of foreign aid.
