Severe rainfall has led to extreme flooding in the United Kingdom, damaging homes, businesses and livelihoods across much of Northern England.

As rivers rose and breached their banks over the weekend, many people wondered why cities seemed unprepared.

The country's Environmental Agency went as far as to say that the country had to entirely rethink how floods are addresssed. The United Kingdom has issued "extreme weather warnings" across the affected regions (the highest level of weather warning) which only happens where there is a direct risk to life. The weather over the past few weeks had been completely unprecedented and unpredicted, with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, hosting two COBRA meetings (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A - which only happens in times of emergency) to address the situation.

Some commentators have pointed out that the government ignored recent warnings that certain cities were too vulnerable to flooding and even cut flood budgets or axed flood protection projects altogether.

All arguments aside, one thing is clear: with lives and livelihoods under immediate threat, we need an urgent release of funding from the government.

With all this in mind, actor Michael Sheen was surprised to hear Labour MP Simon Danczuk say that the country should divert money from foreign aid to deal with the flood.

Danczuk said, "Why do we spend money in Bangladesh when it needs spending in Great Britain? What we need to do is to sort out the problems which are occurring here and not focus so much on developing countries. That has to be our priority."

Sheen had been a guest editor of BBC Radio 4's Today Programme and he used his closing remarks to discredit this line of thinking, implying this was a way to scapegoat foreigners for earlier budget mistakes. 

International aid constitutes 0.7% of the UK's gross national income. This is not an arbitrarily arrived at number. Countries from around the world convened in the 1970s and set 0.7% as the foreign aid benchmark. They did this because too often countries shirk international aid, and in an increasingly interconnected world, all countries are responsible for global poverty.

This money--currently £11.4 billion--goes to projects ranging from building schools to promoting gender equality to improving global health outcomes. It chiefly seeks to aid the roughly 702 million people living in extreme poverty around the world - and UK aid achieves this, saving a life every 2 minutes

Nobody is dismissing the suffering of the flood victims in the country's north. They need broad assistance that includes help relocating, increased flood protection and insurance coverage.

But pointing to international aid as a way to corral money is a classic case of misdirection, especially during a time of increased anxiety about "foreigners."  We do not have to choose between supporting UK flood victims, and helping the world’s poorest and most vulnerable--we can and should do both.

As Sheen said in his closing remarks, "There is terrible, terrible poverty in this country; there are terrible conditions for certain people.

"And I can understand why people get so worried about giving money to other countries, but of course 0.7 per cent of the national income goes on foreign aid.

"That is about being a member of the global community, taking that responsibility seriously. 99.3% of course goes on what goes on in this country.

"And the argument, the false dichotomy of pushing British people against foreigners, or shirkers against strivers, it's a false argument.

"And it allows other people who have certain interests to get away with it.

"The argument needs to be, "What is our government doing for people in our own country?"'

Here at Global Citizen, we are shocked and saddened by the floods that have destroyed lives in the United Kingdom and our thoughts are with everyone affected this Christmas time. We stand with Michael Sheen as he quite rightly explains that this isn’t a choice between spending money in the UK vs abroad. The funding we spend to empower those in extreme poverty (and often those who have also been hit by a natural disaster) should not be the first thing to come into question when we need to find funding to cope with this kind of unprecedented situation.

TopicsEnvironmentCitizenshipGlobal0.7%Foreign Aid

Editorial

Defend the Planet

Michael Sheen stands up for international aid as UK struggles with severe flooding

By Joe McCarthy