Households told to stockpile food, water and medicine in new warning

Households were urged to stockpile tinned food, bottled water and first aid kits, as Defence Secretary Wes Streeting warned the nation must "be ready". Hand sanitiser, blankets and clockwork radios should also be stored for emergencies, according to a new government campaign.

Mr Streeting said businesses and individuals should be prepared "for the eventuality that there may be disruption to essential supply chains caused by hostile state actors or terrorists." The Government last night called on people across the country to ensure they could survive for at least three days without with the outside world.

Officially, the measures are designed to ensure households can cope with extreme weather conditions. But Mr Streeting highlighted the threat from the UK's enemies when he spoke at the opening of the UK Gun Hall Plant in Telford, Shropshire.

He added: "How would we cope if the payment systems of the supermarkets went down?

"Those are the sorts of everyday challenges and threats we could well face, and it is right we ask the country to be ready for those things and ask everybody to do their bit."

Former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer revealed earlier this year that British intelligence believed Russia could launch an attack on a NATO country by 2030, which could place the UK directly in conflict with Vladimir Putin's regime.

Ministers also last night announced plans for new legislation to protect the UK's undersea cables and pipelines, which carry data used for online messages, video calls, online banking and shopping, after it emerged Russian fishing trawlers are spying on the vital infrastructure.

The "Be Ready" campaign, overseen by the Cabinet Office, warns every household should ensure they can cope for at least three days of isolation. It urges people to store nine litres of water per person for drinking, with more for other tasks such as cooking and washing, and three days' worth of tinned or dried food.

In addition, households should stock up on hand sanitiser, wet wipes and bathroom products, torches with batteries, power banks to charge phones and medical devices, copies of important documents such as passports or birth certificates, nappies, pet food, baby formula and essential medicines.

According to the guidance, blankets and sleeping bags should be stored because "homes can become cold very quickly when the heating goes off".

Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: "Those who can follow this advice should follow this advice. By taking simple steps to be ready for everyday emergencies like severe storms, people can reduce pressure on emergency services, helping them prioritise people who need more support in an emergency."

A social media and radio advertising campaign will be launched in an attempt to reach audiences who may be particularly at risk in an emergency, such as families with young children and older people.

The Government has also recruited more than five hundred organisations including charities to businesses to spread the message.

Potential dangers from cyber-attacks were highlighted as 32 UK Government services were taken offline, and four were partially unavailable, while work was carried out to address security issues yesterday.

It followed the discovery of a critical security flaw in the programming language PHP, used by the majority of websites including Wikipedia and WordPress

Downing Street said no large UK public-facing critical services have been affected, but some "limited" Government websites have gone dark while issues are resolved.

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) experts are working with OpenAI, whose technology was used to discover the vulnerabilities, and partners around the globe to address potential problems, a No 10 spokeswoman said.

Tech minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra told the House of Lords: "The information I have is that 32 Government services are unavailable and four are partially unavailable."

She said that "has largely resulted from precautionary measures taken to protect systems while security updates and mitigations are applied".