The UK should be doing more to help India – sending vaccine supplies would be a start

The UK government announced on Sunday it will send another 1,000 ventilators to India, on top of the 200 ventilators, 495 oxygen concentrators and three oxygen generation units promised last week. The British people are also doing their bit: the British Asian Trust’s Oxygen for India appeal has raised more than £1.5m in the past week.

Of course, any help in India’s hour of desperate need is to be welcomed. But there is something else Boris Johnson should offer when he holds a virtual meeting with Narendra Modi, his Indian counterpart, on Tuesday. During a planned visit to India, postponed because of the country’s Covid-19 crisis, Mr Johnson originally intended to ask Mr Modi to release 5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to be exported to the UK. That must surely now be off-limits. However, the prime minister should go further: he should offer to send some of the UK’s vaccine supplies to India immediately.

The government has ordered more than 500 million doses of seven of the most promising vaccines for a country with a population of 67 million. True, there are still occasional disruptions to supplies. But the UK’s vaccine rollout is a huge success, and running ahead of schedule. Even if it meant a slight delay in immunising younger adults, who are at lower risk of becoming seriously ill with the virus, the UK should do what is right for the world and help India when it most needs it.

With the exception of the Scottish National Party, most UK politicians, including the Labour opposition, are dodging this sensitive issue. They want to be seen to be putting British people first, and doing nothing to undermine hitting the target for all adults to have been offered their first jab by the end of July.

When asked, during a round of television interviews on Sunday, if the government was thinking about supplying doses to India, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said he had not received any request from India “on that specific issue”.

Sadly, this is the same selfish “charity begins at home” mentality that has led Mr Johnson’s government to cut £4bn from the UK’s overseas aid budget in the middle of a pandemic. The fight against Covid-19 is self-evidently a global one. The alarming divide between rich and poor countries might have taken longer to materialise than some experts thought, but is staring us in the face now.

The proportion of people dying from coronavirus in poor and low- and middle-income countries has risen from less than 10 per cent to more than 30 per cent in the past month. The terrible scenes we are witnessing in India could soon be replicated in Africa. Without action now, the virus will likely mutate and return to haunt the richer countries, 10 of whom, including the UK, account for an estimated 80 per cent of the doses administered so far. The welcome celebrations for the new freedoms Britons are gradually rediscovering will not last long unless we recognise that the whole world is in this together.

Ministers insist the UK does not have a surplus, saying they will consider how to use any spare vaccines after the UK’s rollout is completed. They point out the UK has contributed £548m to support 1.3 million doses through the Covax initiative to 92 low- and middle-income countries, including India.

But it is painfully obvious that India needs extra help now. Ministers talk up the UK’s special bond with India, which they hope will translate into a trade deal that has eluded many other nations. They should remember that India helped Britain in its own hour of need a year ago, by approving the export of 3 million packets of paracetamol.

While the UK government hesitates, others are stepping into the vacuum of leadership. Russia has sent 150,000 doses of its Sputnik-V vaccine to India. In a year in which the UK holds the presidency of the G7 nations, Mr Johnson is in danger of missing an opportunity to set an example to the world and show that “Global Britain” reflects the warm-hearted, generous values of its people.