4m families can’t afford insurance... but we pay £30m to cover Third World!
MILLIONS of pounds of British aid money is to be used to pay for the insurance premiums of people living in Third World countries.
Theresa May will announce the controversial move as part of a new £228million aid package to be unveiled at the G20 summit in Hamburg today.
The Prime Minister will argue that the cash will help poverty-stricken countries deal with natural disasters, and make them less dependent on aid in the long term. But she faced a backlash last night from Tory MPs whose own constituents are struggling to get insurance.
Industry estimates suggest that about four million families in Britain have no home insurance, either because they cannot afford soaring premiums or because insurance companies are unwilling to offer cover to businesses and individuals in flood-hit areas.
Tory MP Philip Davies, whose Shipley constituency was hit by devastating floods in 2015, said it was ‘unjustifiable’ to spend taxpayers’ money on insuring people in other countries when families here have no insurance.
‘Many of my constituents, who have suffered horrendously as a result of flooding, will be disgusted that people in other countries appear to be a bigger priority for our government than them,’ he said. ‘I have got constituents and businesses who cannot get insurance – the Government should be helping them first, rather than prioritising people in other countries. It is completely unjustifiable.
‘People are not just fed up with the way we spend foreign aid, they are angry. I am angry – the Government is completely and utterly out of touch on this issue.’
Whitehall officials last night said that the £30million devoted to funding insurance premiums was only ‘seed money’ to get the scheme started, and countries would put in their own money after the four-year start-up period.
But Tory MP Ian Liddell Grainger, whose Somerset constituency has been hit repeatedly by flooding, said taxpayers could be on the hook for much longer.
‘I think it sets a very dangerous precedent for us to be insuring people in other countries against calamity. It makes them dependent on us and gives their own governments no incentive to take action themselves,’ he warned.
‘Spending millions of pounds in this way sends the wrong message – we want to be moving countries away from dependency, not encouraging even more.’ Downing Street last night insisted the scheme would help countries ‘strengthen disaster planning’.
Officials said insurance could help save both lives and money by ensuring a quicker response to disasters. ‘This will reduce the need for expensive humanitarian aid, reassure private investors and help people rebuild their lives,’ one official said.
It will be run through a new Centre for Global Disaster Protection’ in London, designed to speed up the response to humanitarian disasters.
Officials believe the scheme – part of a £228million aid package aimed mainly at Africa – could eventually generate profits for London-based insurance firms.
Other initiatives in the aid package include measures to boost transport infrastructure, create jobs and integrate local stock markets with the world’s financial system.
It will be funded from the Government’s main foreign aid budget, which by law must match 0.7 per
‘Dangerous precedent’ ‘Completely unjustifiable’
cent of the national income. Speaking ahead of the announcement, the Prime Minister said: ‘We must not forget that progress in Africa benefits the Uk at home.
‘Our international aid work is helping to build Britain’s trading partners of the future, creating real alternatives to mass migration, and enhancing our security, while simultaneously ensuring we abide by our moral responsibility to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of some of the poorest people on earth.’