A year after the world’s most deadly natural disaster, the Prime Minister has come under attack for promising hundreds of millions of pounds of assistance that never materialised. The public donated a record £300 million to the appeal made by the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group representing major charities.

The Government says that it has committed £275 million to the effort. But a breakdown of the figures shows that only £75 million went directly to humanitarian relief efforts.

The rest of the money is made up of estimates of tax reliefs from public donations (£50 million), long-term development projects in the region (£65 million), European Commission spending on long-term projects (£40 million) and debt relief for Sri Lanka over the next decade (£45 million).

The issue has highlighted a global problem. In a record year for devastating natural emergencies, rich governments have suffered from compassion fatigue in the aftermath of a succession of earthquakes, floods and famines.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has recorded some 70 natural disasters so far this year. It has asked for $5.7 billion (£3.2 billion) in assistance, but overall only 57 per cent has been raised.

Although Britain prides itself on always matching its promises with funds, Mr Blair is guilty of pledging assistance that he has failed to deliver. In his first remarks about the tsunami, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that action was needed rather than words.

“My estimate is we will need to spend from government funds several hundred million pounds. So we will far and away more than match the generosity of the British people,” he said.

Opposition MPs told The Times that the Prime Minister has been caught out in a classic example of government spin. Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow International Development Secretary, said: “Dealing with huge-scale international disaster situations like the tsunami takes carefully targeted aid and assistance and money focused on specific rehabilitation projects, not empty words and broken promises.”

Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on international development, said: “Blair fell into the trap of believing that an appropriate response was to enter a macho bidding war of national pride and largesse, rather than recognising that it is the quality rather than quantity of aid that matters.”

Downing Street said that Mr Blair’s remarks were made early on in the tsunami crisis and he was only estimating the Government’s contribution.

In spite of the British back-tracking, the UN, which co-ordinated the tsunami relief effort, said that in this case $1.1 billion, or 84 per cent of the money needed, had been raised.But as the world has struggled with droughts in Africa, hurricanes in America and a deadly earthquake in Pakistan, other countries have also been guilty of making pledges they failed to keep or of simply not contributing. For instance, only 27 per cent of the $550 million needed for emergency relief for the victims of the Kashmir earthquake in October has been raised.

Oxfam published a league table of rich donors to “name and shame” those failing to contribute adequately to this appeal. Five countries, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Finland and Austria, had donated nothing at all. In an effort to avoid similar funding problems in the future, the UN will call on member states tomorrow to contribute towards a $500 million Central Emergency Response Fund. The money could be used immediately rather than waiting for individual governments to respond.

“We have to persuade people that this is the way to do it — through the UN,” Barbara Stocking, the director of Oxfam, said.

But so far the response is not encouraging. Britain has been the biggest contributor with a pledge of $100 million, with smaller contributions from Norway, Sweden, the Irish Republic and the Netherlands. But the US, France, Canada and Australia have failed to make any contributions.

One of the main problems in raising funds is that ten Western nations account for 90 per cent of aid. Jan Egeland, the UN’s humanitarian relief co- ordinator, wants Middle East nations, particularly the oil-rich Arab Gulf states and Iran, to give more.

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