Strengthening Community Resilience

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

I am sure that Opposition Members, and indeed hon. Members from across the House, will all know the motto of the scouting movement. It is not “Dyb, dyb, dyb”, as the right hon. Lady says.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Be prepared.

[Dan Jarvis]

It is “Be prepared”—thank you very much. The circumstances are certainly different, but I hope the House agrees that there is wisdom in both of those mottoes. Both remind us that we have a responsibility to be ready for the sorts of everyday emergencies that people faced just this weekend. Together, by taking the simple steps in this campaign, we can help people and communities right across the United Kingdom to be ready.

I commend this statement to the House.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dan Jarvis]

I certainly will look at that.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

The Security Minister and Cabinet Office Minister knows that I have a huge amount of time for him, but I want to slightly break the consensus that has mostly held in the Chamber today. I think the Government’s communications—mass public communications—are confused on this issue. We are being asked by senior Ministers to stock up on corned beef, water and whatever, because of storms. Well—breaking news—there have been many storms over the last 80 years in Shropshire, and indeed across the country, and we have never been given this advice before.

If this is about war preparedness and being on a war footing, as the Defence Secretary has suggested we should all be, I think the Government should just come clean and treat the British public with a little bit more respect. At the beginning of the Ukrainian war, defence intelligence was signed off by the excellent then Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, and shared with the British public, so that they came along with the Ministry of Defence and the Government. I think that the Security Minister needs to look at that as a good example.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. In case I was not understood earlier, questions need to be shorter and answers on point.