British defence secretary Streeting began stockpiling food and water weeks ago amid fears of a national emergency

Britain's defence secretary, Wes Streeting, began stockpiling food and water weeks ago in case of a national emergency. Talking up the threats to the UK, he said his department has already begun ramping up its spending in response.

Streeting said he has bottled water, a first aid kit and a battery-powered torch on standby. He added that he is stockpiling baked beans, sweetcorn, red kidney beans, tuna, protein bars and nuts.

Streeting, who recently urged all Britons to follow suit, said he started setting aside the supplies because he wanted to lead by example.

He told the Times he was glad the message was getting through, because his mother had been in touch asking how much she needed to buy as payday approached, since she was budgeting to the end of the month. People are beginning to think about their own household resilience, he said, making sure they have sufficient supplies of bottled water, canned goods and battery-powered torches — common-sense things for everyday challenges.

Streeting spoke after the chancellor, John Healey, said he wanted defence spending to reach 3 percent of GDP by 2030 and 3.5 percent by 2035. Healey has already asked Whitehall departments to find 1 percent cuts in their budgets for long-term investment to fund defence spending.

Streeting told the Times he was determined the UK should be able to deter its adversaries and, should deterrence fail, to be ready to defeat them. That is the core job, he said, and sight of it should never be lost.

He added that any additional spending must be done carefully, saying that spending more money badly is not virtuous. Value for money and modernisation needed to be balanced in order to ready the UK to fight the wars ahead, he said.

In June, Healey's resignation as defence secretary was one of the final nails in the coffin of Keir Starmer's premiership. Healey, who now serves as chancellor in Andy Burnham's government, accused Burnham's predecessor and the former chancellor Rachel Reeves of putting the country's security at risk with inadequate funding for the defence investment plan (Dip).

Announcing his first budget on Wednesday, Healey said he was now fully funding the defence investment plan. He reiterated the target of defence spending reaching 3 percent of GDP, prompting Nato secretary general Mark Rutte to say the UK was on a credible path towards meeting the commitment made by all Nato allies in The Hague. But Healey was criticised for leaving details of his plan to reach that target until next year's spending review.

Besides spending, Streeting also discussed oversight of service personnel, telling the Times the courts were in the middle of an active campaign to smear the reputation and integrity of the special forces. He also left the door open to scrutiny of special forces and the UK's nuclear weapons by MPs and peers on the intelligence and security committee, saying they could be trusted.