Kemi Badenoch has warned that Britain is "at war" as hostile states wage a shadow campaign of hybrid warfare against the West, targeting businesses, power supplies and supermarket freezers. The Conservative leader spoke at a defence rally aboard HMS Wellington in London, where she accused Labour of burying their heads in the sand after a wave of cyber-attacks.
Hybrid warfare threat to UK
Mrs Badenoch said: "Warfare is changing, in so many different ways - we are at war, now. Hybrid warfare, unconventional warfare." Referring to a hack last year that targeted Jaguar Land Rover, she said the firm has seen its operations and supply chains "completely crippled". That attack, she claimed, was linked to Moscow. Another attack saw a British power plant shut down by hackers connected to Iran.
She added: "This week we have heard about North Korean hackers stealing billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to avoid sanctions and fund their army. Just yesterday, we heard about European supermarkets being shut down because their freezers and refrigeration systems had been hacked. That's our food supplies that we're talking about." Stores across Europe were forced to throw out spoiled food after hackers turned up the heat on fridges to 80 degrees this week.
Economic impact and defence funding
Mrs Badenoch also warned that Russian spy ships were operating in the English Channel and snooping on Nato exercises, adding: "Unconventional warfare is here now, we need to start getting ready. We need to get serious." Speaking to the Daily Express, she said: "If people think that unconventional warfare has nothing to do with them, it has everything to do with them. The Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack cost our economy £2billion pounds."
She added: "If the supermarkets get shut down for a day or two, we're all going to be in trouble. We need to stop being complacent. This is real." The Tory leader accused ministers of having their "heads in the sand like ostriches" and turned her fire on Chancellor John Healey, who quit as Defence Secretary over funding, only to delay a decision on hitting 3% of GDP on defence in last week's Budget.
Political backlash and response
She said: "He resigned over that and yet they are still not funding defence to three percent of GDP. They have a plan to make a plan to get the plan. This is not serious." Mrs Badenoch also warned that "stockpiling three days of tinned food is not what's going to save us if there is a drone attack or a nuclear missile attack". Standing aboard the 1934 warship, she hailed the Royal Navy's role in defeating fascism and ending the slave trade.
Furious Labour MPs hit back, with defence minister Luke Pollard slamming his Tory rivals. He said: "If the Conservatives care so much about defence, why did they cut our army to its smallest size since the Napoleonic Wars and leave our armed forces, in the words of their own Defence Secretary, 'hollowed out and underfunded'?"
