Andy Burnham has stockpiles of beans, soup and Twiglets in case of a civil emergency, he has said, adding that a new government campaign was not reason for panic buying.
The prime minister was questioned on his domestic supply situation after the Be Ready campaign advised households to have enough bottled water and long-life food to keep going in case of an emergency, such as one caused by a weather event or cyber-attack.
Asked on BBC Radio 5 whether, like Angela Rayner, he would make sure his emergency supplies included a bottle of sauvignon blanc, Burnham said: “I’m not sure a bottle of wine is your best first port of call if you’re in a slightly crisis situation, but it probably helps when you’ve done the hard work.
“I’ll stick to the basics, I think. I do like my beans, so I have plenty of those in the cupboard and soup. I think those are the kind of things that I would recommend people to have as well as well as Twiglets. I’m not sure I can get by for too long without those.”
The campaign says people should ensure they have at least three days of supplies, including water, in case of an emergency, which is similar to advice given to citizens in some other European countries.
Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, said the nation also needed to prepare for the threat of “state-sponsored terrorism” by Russia or other hostile powers targeting everyday infrastructure.
The advice was general and longer-term, Burnham told Radio 5, rather than urgent: “It’s not about panicking, is it? It’s just about being prepared and having a sensible amount of supplies in the hom e… These events, sadly, in the world that we’re in are becoming more likely, and therefore it’s just sensible to be prepared.”
Asked about a message from a listener who was worried about supplies running low as people tried to stock up, Burnham said: “It’s not about panic buying. I understand what your listener is saying there, but it’s about just taking sensible measures to have enough in the house to tide you over should there be a difficult situation.”
Speaking earlier to the BBC, the Treasury minister James Murray admitted to being less prepared. He said: “I’ve got quite a lot of coffee in my house … it’s for individual people to take choices. I’m not going to say: ‘Here’s a government shopping list.’” He added: “I’m not going to pretend I’ve followed all that advice myself yet.”
The advice was, he said, in part a matter of bringing the UK into line with other countries. He told BBC Breakfast: “If you look at, say, Ireland or other countries in Europe like France and Netherlands, they’ve had this system for quite a long time, the idea of having a bit of stuff at home to protect yourselves in case something goes wrong.
“So it’s quite normal in other countries. I think it’s a bit more interesting here because we haven’t really talked about it as a country in recent years.”
