Angela Rayner has revealed her ultimate "disaster box" contents, which include mascara, concealer, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, a tin of baked beans and a tin of custard. The Labour Housing Secretary spoke live from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Sunday (September 27).
Rayner's emergency stash
When quizzed on Times Radio about what she would pack in her emergency stash, Rayner said: "Mascara, concealer, I don't know, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, a tin of baked beans because you've got to have some baked beans and I like a good tin of custard as well."
She added: "So, I think that'll keep me going for a while."
Streeting's warning
It comes after Defence Secretary Wes Streeting issued a sobering warning that Britain faces a "greater risk of war" with Russia than at any point during his lifetime. Streeting urged families across the nation to adopt a "whole society approach" to national resilience by panic-proofing their homes against potential military conflict, terror strikes, or devastating natural disasters.
He pressed households to stockpile physical cash, bottled drinking water and non-perishable tinned goods to survive unexpected grid meltdowns, blackouts, or cyber attacks on online banking.
Government response
Insisting the nation must be "alert, not alarmed", Streeting revealed that Putin is relentlessly prodding the UK and Nato's defences, promising Labour will ramp up defence spending to its highest level since the Cold War ended.
Defending her colleague's grim warnings, Rayner added: "The government has always had this information available and Wes is just being very practical and sensible, which has been a long-standing principle for any government."
This comes as NATO air defences have been triggered for the third time in just two days, as tensions over a potential full-scale conflict between Russia and the West have escalated dramatically. Russia launched extensive drone attacks on eastern Ukraine on Thursday morning (September 24), forcing Poland to deploy its ground-based air defences in response. Poland also revealed that strikes in Ukraine 24 hours earlier necessitated air defence activation, and the nation's air force scrambled fighter jets when a Russian helicopter 'breached' Polish airspace later on Wednesday morning.
