Boris on the back foot as he flies out to visit Irma victims

BORIS JOHNSON finally announced today that he would fly to the Caribbean to visit the British islands devastated by Hurricane Irma.

His trip follows criticism from locals that the UK was too slow to send help and that ministers should have followed French president Emmanuel Macron’s example by announcing a visit. He was due to travel to St Martin today on an Airbus carrying aid.

The Foreign Secretary will spend “the coming days” in the region to meet residents, see British relief efforts on the ground and consider what else can be done. His allies denied that he had bowed to political pressure for a minister to make the trip, saying he had been pushing for a visit but was waiting for clearance from officials on the ground.

Mr Johnson was embarrassed this morning when pages of his notes were visible as he attended Cabinet — revealing that high risk-prisoners were among 40 escapees on the British Virgin Islands. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the British government “should have acted much faster”, and those with relatives in hurricane-hit areas said they had not been supported.

Holidaymaker Liz Jackson told the BBC she was disappointed by what victims saw as a lack of UK government support after she was evacuated from St Martin — which is part Dutch, part French — by a US plane.

“I appreciate there probably weren’t many Britons on the island,” she said. “But I feel we didn’t have that support. It’s disheartening and sad, really.”

Mr Johnson defended the Government’s response last night saying that criticism was unjustified. The Foreign Secretary called Irma an “unprecedented catastrophe”. He said: “This is a very big consular crisis and I am confident we are doing everything we possibly can to help British nationals.”

More than 700 British troops and 50 police officers have been sent to the region along with 20 tonnes of aid. Mr Johnson said that only £4 million remained of a £32 million relief fund.