UK quietly warns citizens to stock up on emergency supplies
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The British government advises households to be self-sufficient for three days in case of an emergency.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- The UK government told households to be ready for emergencies and keep three days of supplies, as it warns of weather, cyber and hostile threats.
- The guidance was quietly launched on Oct 22, with Paymaster General James Murray saying households and government both have a role in resilience.
- Ministers want to avoid panic buying, recalling Covid-19 shortages, while also preparing for supply chain disruption and bigger spending choices on defence and infrastructure.
AI generated
LONDON – Britain is trying to get its citizens to prepare for the worst – without descending into a panic.
The British government has quietly published guidance for households to “be ready” in the event of a national emergency.
The advice that they should have enough supplies to be self-sufficient for three days represents a subtle shift towards more urgent messaging amid growing concern about threats ranging from Russian hybrid attacks and AI-driven cyberwarfare to climate change.
The recommendations were slipped onto a government website on Oct 22, along with a written statement to Parliament by Security Minister Dan Jarvis.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting separately said he wanted people to be “alert, but not alarmed” in a 21st-century update to Britain’s wartime slogan: “Keep Calm and Carry On”.
The nature of the roll-out highlights the government’s concern about overdoing the worries, with memories of the empty supermarket shelves of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic still fresh.
However, the UK faces an expanding list of threats, including droughts and flooding, and the head of MI5 said earlier in October that the security service devotes more resources to countering actions by hostile states, such as Russia and Iran, than during the Cold War.
The preparedness campaign had been planned for earlier in the year by former Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
However, his successor Andy Burnham delayed its launch due to concerns that it could be seen as an overly pessimistic start to his premiership, as reported by Bloomberg in August.
Burnham has spent his first four months in office trying to build optimism across the country. Policy announcements have focused more on feel-good steps such as bus fare caps and greater devolution than on thorny issues such as defence spending and the threats facing the UK.
But the decision to publish guidance on Oct 22, telling households to “take a few simple steps to stay prepared if everyday services are temporarily disrupted”, suggests the government is now seeking to build voter awareness of the difficult decisions facing John Healey in his Budget next week.
“Individual households can play their role in making sure that they’re more resilient, but government has a role in making sure we’ve got the right defences,” Treasury Minister James Murray told Sky on the morning of Oct 23.
“The big focus, rightly for many years and into the future, is on our military capability, our defensive capability.”
The online checklist advised Britons to stock up on three days’ supply of bottled water and non-perishable foods, as well as hand sanitiser, a torch and batteries, and a radio. It also advised them to keep cash at hand, copies of important documents, and blankets and warm clothing.
“The storms last winter and the wildfires this summer have shown how severe weather events can cause disruption to our everyday lives and impact the services we rely on, like phones, power, water and the internet,” Jarvis said in his statement.
They “are a reminder that we can all play our part to keep ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities safe in times of emergency”.
The move comes at a time when ministers are under pressure to take significant steps to modernise infrastructure and prepare for the future.
Hotter summers and plans for data centre construction are increasing demand for water, but the UK has not built a new reservoir since 1992, shortly after the privatisation of the water sector.
Britain has also been warned by its top defence experts that it needs to invest heavily in its military, as it is unprepared to defend itself in the event of a full-scale war.
Healey quit his job as defence secretary under Starmer in a row over military spending, and now as chancellor faces the conundrum of getting defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
Jarvis said the move “brings the UK into line with many of our European peers who also have the three-day message at the heart of their campaign”.
No government ministers had been scheduled to speak on the launch of the resilience campaign this week.
Streeting only revealed the launch was imminent when asked by journalists about preparation for resilience when he appeared at the opening of a new weapons factory in the West Midlands on Oct 22.
He said the public needed to be prepared for supply chain disruption caused by “hostile state actors or terrorists”.
UK shoppers rushed to stockpile essentials in March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic stoked fears of lockdowns and shortages. Toilet paper, pasta and cleaning products vanished from shelves in many stores, forcing supermarkets to ramp up restocking efforts.
Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons joined the BRC that month in urging shoppers to buy only what they needed, warning that panic-buying risked leaving others without essentials.
Speaking in front of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last week, Jim Bligh, corporate affairs director of the British Retail Consortium, said he was concerned about being too alarmist.
“Panic-buying is quite easy to generate, particularly if you tell people to buy a particular type of product – they will go out to buy it,” he said.
“If the government were to say to you, ‘Go and buy x liters of water,’ would we run out of water? I do not know.” BLOOMBERG