Streeting says he has stockpiled food for weeks as UK sets 3% defence spending target for 2030

Since the government launched its "Be Ready" campaign on Oct. 22, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has become the face of Britain's push to get households prepared for emergencies. Now he says he is doing it himself.

Streeting told the Times he began stockpiling food and water weeks ago in case of a national emergency. He keeps bottled water, a first aid kit and a battery-powered torch on standby. The food list: baked beans, sweetcorn, red kidney beans, tuna, protein bars and nuts.

He said he wanted to "lead by example." He also said his mother got in touch before payday to ask how much she should buy. "I'm glad that people are beginning to think about their own household resilience," he said, calling the supplies "commonsense things for the everyday challenges."

The money

Streeting spoke after Chancellor John Healey's first budget on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Healey said he is fully funding the defence investment plan and wants defence spending at 3% of GDP by 2030 and 3.5% by 2035. He has also asked Whitehall departments to find 1% cuts in their budgets to fund long-term investment in defence.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the UK is on "a credible path towards meeting the commitment made by all Nato allies in The Hague."

Healey was criticised for leaving the details of how Britain reaches the target until next year's spending review.

The politics here are unusual. Healey quit as defence secretary in June, accusing the then prime minister, Keir Starmer, and then chancellor Rachel Reeves of leaving the defence investment plan underfunded. "I would not be able to accept a Dip settlement that does not give our forces the resources they need," he wrote in his resignation letter. He now holds the Treasury under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Streeting, appointed defence secretary by Burnham in July, said extra cash must be spent carefully. "Spending more money badly is not virtuous," he told the Times. He said value for money and modernisation both matter if Britain is to "fight the wars ahead."

Burnham has had a harder time on the money question. In September, he was challenged in Parliament on defence spending and answered that taking £4 billion from housing welfare to boost the military would create homelessness that would itself be destabilising.

The 1,000-day warning

In a Telegraph article last weekend, Streeting wrote that adversaries' "force strength and war economy could put them in a position to attack" by 2030. "That gives us a little over 1,000 days to complete our mission: to be ready with our allies to fight and win," he wrote.

He said the threat is not only Russian tanks. He pointed to state-sponsored terrorism, sabotage, and attacks on technology and information. He told Parliament on Oct. 19 that terms like "hybrid threats" and "gray zone" fail to convey the seriousness of what he prefers to call Russia's "state-sponsored terrorism." He added: "We are not at war with Russia, nor do we seek confrontation."

What the government wants households to do

The campaign advises households to keep three days of bottled water and non-perishable food, roughly nine litres of water per person according to the guidance. It also recommends a battery or wind-up FM radio, cash in case card payments or cash machines fail, blankets, a first aid kit and a torch. Parents of babies are told to keep extra essentials. The government says three days should be enough time for those most in need to be reached.

Streeting said on BBC's Question Time that there is no "specific thing we've got in mind," and that people should be "alert, not alarmed." He said Britain has a greater threat level "than we have certainly for most, if not all, of my lifetime." He said cyber incidents, like the recent PHP flaw that sent organisations scrambling, will happen "more and more."

An audience member put it to him that the campaign was scaremongering and could trigger Covid-style panic buying. Streeting answered that ministers looked at what other European countries are doing. "They are way ahead of us on some of this stuff," he said.

The Conservative response

The opposition is split on the substance. Shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat called it "a perfectly reasonable thing to ask people" to hold several days of provisions.

Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns was harsher, accusing the government of "lecturing the public." "Preparing for emergencies is important," she said. "But the Government should get its own house in order before lecturing the public. It isn't families that are failing to fund our defence."

That is the open question. The 3% and 3.5% targets are on paper, and the 1% departmental cuts are requested. How the money will be found, and which budgets pay for it, is not due until the spending review next year.