Former Defence Minister Says Homes Must Stockpile Candles, Radios And Iodine Tablets To Prepare For Attacks

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Households should start stockpiling emergency items, including iodine tablets in case of nuclear fallout, due to the growing risk of attacks on the UK, a former defence minister has said.

Former Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, who also served as chair of the House of Commons defence committee, said people must be more prepared for what is described as 'grey-zone' warfare, which includes cyber warfare and disruption to critical infrastructure.

Writing in The House magazine, Ellwood, who was a soldier before becoming an MP, warned that "the era of complacency is over" and "Britain must wake up and start preparing now".

He said that the UK is facing new threats from hostile actors that don't "begin and end with the military", describing them as "deniable, covert attacks aimed at weakening our economy, undermining our infrastructure, and sowing confusion and panic".

Ellwood believes people nationwide must be able to keep safe, warm and informed for three days without the "outside help" of power, water and the internet.

"Every home, business and organisation needs to be able to function for at least 72 hours without outside help," the former minister wrote.

He set out a list of items every household should consider stockpiling, including: clean water; a battery-powered radio; iodine tablets in case of nuclear fallout; and cash.

Ellwood wrote:

"Every household should now consider stockpiling:

• 100 litres of clean water
• non-perishable food (ideally ready-to-eat or able to be consumed cold)
• candles and a working torch
• a battery-powered radio for news updates
• iodine tablets in case of nuclear fallout
• cash (in case ATMs and card readers go down)
• a basic first aid kit"

Ellwood pointed to Europe, where Poland is reintroducing national service and Germany and France are boosting civilian readiness in response to global security threats, writing that "the UK must match that mindset."

The ex-MP highlighted the threat to the UK's undersea cables as a particular area of concern.

"Russia’s so-called shadow fleet is already mapping the UK’s undersea cable networks – those vital arteries that deliver our electricity, gas and data. Autonomous underwater vehicles are criss-crossing the seabed, gathering intelligence," he wrote.

He added: "This isn’t alarmism. It’s realpolitik. It’s about preparing mentally and physically for disruption so we can avoid panic when it happens."

Ellwood was one of a group of former defence ministers who warned last month that the UK is not currently capable of defending itself from attack.

There have been growing questions over the UK's ability to defend itself after the Donald Trump US administration indicated a winding down of military support for Europe.

Ellwood previously told PoliticsHome that the government should restore national service to bolster the potential deployment of British troops to Ukraine under a peace deal.

In his piece for The House, the former Conservative MP said that individual preparedness "is only part of the equation" and the UK's network of Local Resilience Forums — the multi-agency partnerships that include councils, emergency services, the NHS and others — must be better resourced and better practised.

"Councils should be engaging with the public, reviving these forums with urgency, and organising dry-run scenarios for cyber-attacks, energy blackouts, or mass communications failure," he said.