Andy Burnham has urged British households to keep tins of food and bottled water on hand as part of a fresh push on emergency preparedness.
The Greater Manchester mayor, 55, told BBC Radio 5 Live on Friday that a clear head and a modest stash of essentials could help families ride out the kind of disruptions that are hitting the UK with growing frequency. He pointed to severe weather knocking out power in Cornwall and broader online vulnerabilities as signals that resilience planning matters more than ever.
“You need to have a clear head when it comes to a challenging situation. So some tins of food, some bottled water, I think maybe,” he said.
Burnham’s own emergency kit, he revealed, would lean toward beans, soup and Twiglets — a notably British selection that underlined his everyman framing of the issue. He stressed that the conversation about readiness was not about alarmism but about practical adaptation to a world where, as he put it, “unexpected events seem to be becoming more and more common.”
“We’re having the conversation with people about being better prepared because we’re living in a world where unexpected events seem to be becoming more and more common,” he said.
“Obviously, weather events, and we’re in a situation today where the UK is facing storms and obviously, we feel for the people without power in Cornwall right now.”
The government-backed “be ready” guidance calls for enough supplies to last three days without water or power, and officials emphasize that most households already own much of what they need. The checklist extends beyond pantry staples to prescription medications, with advice to restock at least five days ahead of running out. Parents are told to keep baby formula that does not require boiling water, plus nappies and wipes. Pet food and water also make the list.
Burnham took a gentle swipe at Housing Secretary Angela Rayner’s quip that her personal emergency kit would feature a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. He allowed that people should be “allowed a glass or two” during difficult stretches, but added via BBC Radio 5 Live that he was “not sure that that’s the top of the list in terms of the advice.”
“It is just having those supplies in the house to get you through those moments. So we are having that conversation about resilience,” he continued.
The intervention lands amid broader Whitehall messaging on national readiness that has ranged from infrastructure hardening to public information campaigns. Burnham, a Labour figure who has carved out a distinct political identity since his mayoral tenure began in 2017, framed the issue in unvarnished terms: the country needs to be “more resilient when the unexpected happens,” and that starts with what ordinary people keep in their cupboards.
The Cornwall power outages referenced by Burnham came as storms swept parts of the UK, leaving thousands temporarily without electricity and underscoring the immediate relevance of the preparedness push. The government has not linked the “be ready” campaign to any specific new threat assessment, but the timing reflects a pattern of ministers and senior officials stressing domestic resilience alongside traditional security priorities.
Rayner’s wine remark, delivered in a lighter register, had circulated as an example of how cabinet members are personalizing the readiness message — though Burnham’s correction suggests some discomfort with treating emergency planning too casually in public.
The “be ready” framework does not specify brands or quantities beyond the three-day threshold, leaving households to calibrate their own stores. Medical supplies and infant care items receive explicit mention, a nod to populations for whom disruption carries heightened risk.
Burnham’s Twiglets aside, the overall tone of the messaging has been studiously practical, aimed at normalizing preparedness without triggering the kind of panic-buying that scrambled supply chains during the early COVID-19 pandemic. Officials have emphasized incremental stocking over bulk purchasing.
The mayor’s radio appearance came as the government continues rolling out its resilience agenda through multiple channels, with senior figures expected to amplify similar themes in coming days.