Theresa May will hold an emergency Cobra meeting about Hurricane Irma amid calls for her to visit the British overseas territories devastated by the storms.
The prime minister has convened another meeting for Monday afternoon as criticism grows that the UK has been too slow to help the British nationals affected by the crisis either as tourists or residents.
May’s official spokesman said the UK’s reaction to the disaster had been appropriate, although he said he was not aware of any plans at the moment for British ministers to visit damage-stricken Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
“You are talking about a huge number of British citizens who have fallen within the path of this hurricane and we are doing everything we can to help them,” he said.
“RFA Mounts Bay was pre-positioned there in July ahead of hurricane season. What that meant was that aid supplies, specially trained military personnel and a helicopter were in the Caribbean when Irma hit, and they could start getting to Anguilla as soon as the hurricane passed.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he would visit the French overseas territory of St Martin on Tuesday.
Around 700 British troops are now in the region, with UK police also arriving. Ministers have already set aside £32m in aid and will match public donations to a Red Cross appeal.
But Labour has questioned whether the right emergency response teams and equipment were in place to help, as only one naval ship was stationed in the area and a second is having to make its way over from the Mediterranean, which will take about a week.
The premier of the British Virgin Islands, Orlando Smith, has called for greater support from the British government after Irma’s destructive force left the islands in a “critical” state and killed at least five people.
Labour’s Kate Osamor, the shadow international development secretary, called for May to follow Macron’s lead and do more to show she was “getting a grip on this national disaster”.
“Boris Johnson was clear on Sunday that this is a national disaster being treated as though in Inverness, Dover or St Ives. Donald Trump is headed to Florida, and now Emmanuel Macron will visit St Martin tomorrow,” she said.
“But with the UK response to Irma drawing wide criticism, Theresa May is still to announce whether she or Boris Johnson will visit those most affected, look them in the eye and put their concerns at the centre of her government’s response plan.”
Earlier on Monday, Johnson, the foreign secretary, defended the UK response to what he called “an unprecedented catastrophe” and said the government would be providing assistance to effected areas for the long term.
“I stress that this is a very big consular crisis, and I am confident that we are doing everything we possibly can to help British nationals. But you must understand that there are a million of them affected,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“We were there as soon as the crisis broke,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense when a hurricane is impending to send in heavy aircraft or to send in ships that are not capable themselves of withstanding the storm. In fact the French had to ask us for assistance later on, because we’d got the right sort of kit there.
“These are British people, these are British overseas territories, and we are going to be there for the long term.”
