The UK Government's response to Hurricane Irma in British overseas territories has been branded "absolutely pathetic."

Dorothea Hodge, the former UK EU representative for the government of the Caribbean island of Anguilla, said the UK should invest in long-term reconstruction to help the island community.

She told The Guardian: “It’s absolutely disgraceful that it has taken the whole day for Priti Patel to respond to the worst hurricane we have seen in a British territory since the 1920s."

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Ms Patel said she had deployed three UK humanitarian experts and a British naval vessel with 40 Royal Marines and army engineers to the region.

Ms Hodge added: "Anguillans are all British nationals, as British as the Falklands or Gibraltar.

“In comparison to the French president who has set up an emergency fund, an emergency hotline and a reconstruction fund her response after the storm has passed is absolutely pathetic.”

Ms Gumbs-Connor told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I anticipated really that, given our relationship with the UK, they would have done in a similar fashion to our French neighbours on St Martin, where the French made sure they had military on the ground so the response given is timely, which makes it effective, which makes it helpful to our people.

"That is sorely lacking in this case. There was no echoing of chainsaws in Anguilla. We have huge trees and some of our oldest trees are still lying across the roads, roads are remaining impassable.

"While we understand that these things take time, I am very disappointed. We are supposed to have a relationship - we are overseas territories, we are supposed to be of the same type of people as Gibraltar or the Falkland Islands."

She said: "I am truly disappointed because we should not be in this position. If we are indeed supposed to be in a partnership, it should work very much more effectively than it is now."

Ms Hodge said the UK should follow France's example in responding to the hurricane.

She told The Guardian: “What is needed now is a commitment to an immediate effective humanitarian, response, food, water, shelter, emergency health care, and a long-term reconstruction fund to get the island back on its feet after this battering.”