Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has warned that the UK is currently "at war" as hostile foreign hackers target power stations and supermarket food supplies. Speaking at a defence rally aboard HMS Wellington in London, she claimed hostile foreign states are waging a campaign of "hybrid warfare" against the West, deliberately targeting British businesses and food supplies.
Hybrid warfare warning
Badenoch said: "Warfare is changing, in so many different ways - we are at war, now. Hybrid warfare, unconventional warfare." She warned that millions of ordinary families who think the high-tech chaos will not affect them are "dangerously mistaken".
Referring to a hack last year that targeted Jaguar Land Rover, the Tory leader said the firm has seen its operations and supply chains "completely crippled". She claimed that attack was linked to Moscow, while another attack saw a British power plant shut down by hackers connected to Iran.
Food supply threats
Badenoch 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 food after their refrigeration systems were hacked. 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."
Political response
Speaking to the Daily Express, Badenoch 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 criticised Chancellor John Healey, who quit as Defence Secretary over funding, for delaying a decision on hitting 3% of GDP on defence in last week's Budget. 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."
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". Defence minister Luke Pollard responded, saying: "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'?"
