A single image from Caracas has broken through the noise of Whitehall’s usual Tuesday. A mother shielding her child with her own body. Rubble. Dust. A story that writes itself.
But it is not about Venezuela. Not really. It is about what happens in Westminster when a tragedy like this lands on the desk of the International Development Secretary. The scrambling for the right words. The quiet memo to Treasury for contingency funds.
Let’s be clear. The UK does not do disaster drills. Not properly. We have the plans. The protocols. The glossy PDFs. But ask any desk officer in the FCDO and they will tell you the same thing: simulation exercises are the first thing cut when budgets tighten. And budgets always tighten.
This is where the politics gets interesting. A backbench rebellion is brewing. Labour MPs, some Conservatives too, are asking why the government’s disaster response fund remains underspent. £40m sat in an account doing nothing while a mother in Caracas dies waiting for a coordinated rescue that never came.
The whispers from the Whips’ Office are defensive. “We cannot run drills for every scenario.” True. But you can run them for the scenarios that keep happening. Earthquakes. Floods. Disease outbreaks. The patterns are there. The failure to learn is also a pattern.
Number 10 is watching. Briefings suggest the PM is considering a new “Resilience and Response Unit” to co-ordinate drills across departments. It is classic fudge. A new name. New letterhead. No new money. But the optics matter. A grieving mother makes for a powerful headline. A new unit makes for a supportive one in the Mail.
The real fight is in the Treasury. The Chief Secretary is allergic to ring-fenced spending. She wants flexibility. But the International Development Secretary is pushing hard. His allies say he told the PM: “If we do not act, the next tragedy will be on our doorstep. And we will not have the drills to cope.”
Polling shows the public is ahead of the politicians on this. Focus groups in marginal seats reveal a deep anxiety about government readiness. People remember Grenfell. The floods. The pandemic. They do not trust that Whitehall can handle a crisis.
So what happens next? The usual dance. Briefings. Leaks. A carefully timed announcement. Perhaps a visit to a school where children practice “drop, cover and hold on.” The cameras will roll. The ministers will look serious. The mother in Caracas will stay buried.
But here is the truth they will not say: disaster drills are cheap. The political will is not. And until a tragedy hits a UK city, this will remain a story about a foreign mother, not a lesson learned.
Eleanor Rigby
Political Bureau Chief
