Top minister Pat McFadden urged people to stockpile some provisions like bottled water, tinned goods, a radio and torches as he took the Mirror inside the National Situation Centre
Brits have been told to stock up on basics for emergencies as polling reveals 14% don’t have enough supplies to last them a day.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden urged people to stockpile some provisions like bottled water, tinned goods, a radio and torches in case of a crisis.
A poll by Savanta found half (48%) of Brits have no bottled water, while just 24% have an FM radio, 55% have a torch and 66% have enough non-perishable food to last three days. It comes as the exact time Storm Floris will hit UK was revealed as a ‘danger to life’ warning was issued.
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Some 14% have supplies to last more than a day in the event of a power cut that hampered gas and water supply. It found 18% had enough for a day and 22% had enough for two days.
Mr McFadden invited the Mirror into the Government’s top-secret crisis control room as he said there needs to be a “more candid” conversation about the risks facing Britain.
He said: “It’s sensible to have a couple of torches, a battery or a wind up radio, perhaps some spare batteries, a couple of bottles of water, things like this at home.
“We saw what happened, for example, in Spain and Portugal earlier this year, when power went out for about 24 hours.
“If something like that happens, it does make sense to have that kind of thing at home.”
He insisted the advice was “proportionate” – and Brits don’t need to start building nuclear bunkers in their gardens.
Mr McFadden added: “We understand money is tight for people, so it’s not something everybody has to buy at once.
“But maybe over time if they can have a few things like that at home, it’s a good thing to do.”
The Government remains on alert for things like the mass power outages that which plunged large parts of Spain and Portugal into chaos earlier this year.
He said: “It does show you how dependent we are on all these systems.
“For example, the mobile phone signal – you know that if you’ve got no power supply, that’s affected too. “So the things that we rely on every day are fantastic, but they can be vulnerable.”
He added: “I think we want a more candid and open conversation with the public about risks and about their preparedness.”
It comes after the Covid pandemic exposed gaping holes in the UK’s ability to cope in a national emergency. The National Situation Centre was set up in 2021 to meet this challenge, modelled on the White House’s situation room.
Inside, analysts work around the clock to crunch data to help ministers respond to crises from mass flooding to terror attacks.
Its precise location is classified due to the top-secret nature of the work but it lies close to Cobra, where the Prime Minister holds emergency meetings on threats to the nation.
Mr McFadden said: “The data that’s produced here will help ministers make decisions in a Cobra meeting or in an emergency situation.
“It can also be used for longer term decision making. Data has been described as the new oil for a good reason.”
When Storm Eowyn battered parts of the UK in January, analysts could pull up data on power outages and whether emergency services were becoming overwhelmed.
SitCen, as it’s known, will be at the heart of the biggest ever wargame for another pandemic planned for the autumn.
Another weapon in the Government’s arsenal is the emergency alert, which can be sent to millions of mobile phones to warn of risk to life.
The system will be trialled nationwide for only the second time on September 7 at around 3pm.
Mr McFadden said: “Hopefully we’re never in a situation where we have to use it in real life for the whole country. But it’s a useful thing to have.
“The way that we think about it is, if you have a smoke alarm or a fire alarm in your house, periodically, you would test that to see if it was working properly. That’s what we’re doing here for the country.”
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