Perhaps it was an under-handed ploy but it seams that the controversy that is Katie Hopkins has inadvertently raised over £30,000 to aid the relief efforts of the boating horror in the Mediterranean which has already claimed the lives of a suspected 700 migrants escaping Libya.

Former ‘The Apprentice’ contestant, Hopkins, who, in The Sun newspaper, described migrants travelling to Europe from Libya as ‘cockroaches,’ had hoped her  remarks would get some sizeable support, but, instead, highlighted their plight and, as is incredibly typical of the British public, money was raised to help and an online petition demanding her immediate dismissal as a columnist for the tabloid newspaper and amassed 250,000 signatures.

22-year-old Izzy Saunders, simultaneously set up a fundraising page on JustGiving, and to this point, the page has raised just over £30,000 in donations for charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Together, the organisations launched search and rescue operations following the capsized vessel in the Mediterranean last Saturday night.

Saunders said: “It’s been amazing to watch those who signed the petition condemning Katie Hopkins’ comments raise more than £10k in just a few hours.”

Now we’re asking the Sun to put their hands in their pockets and match these donations.”

Hopkins, 40, was reported to the police by the Society of Black Lawyers for inciting racial hatred.