Households urged to stockpile one item to prepare for war on UK soil

In case of war on UK soil, Britons should be prepared - and there's one crucial item that you should make sure you have. Ministers are stepping up calls for the whole of society to become more resilient and plan to carry out a cross-government exercise on how to deal with crises.

A new security strategy published in June said: "Some adversaries are laying the foundations for future conflict, positioning themselves to move quickly to cause major disruption to our energy and or supply chains, to deter us from standing up to their aggression. For the first time in many years, we have to actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario."

The UK Prepare website says you should put together an emergency kit of items at home.

It says you should include a battery or wind-up torch - torches are safer than candles.

UK Prepare says: "It can be helpful to keep these items in one place in your home and ideally somewhere easy to find if the lights aren't working - if you are escaping your house due to a fire you should not take anything with you at all.

"You could consider keeping items you might need to take with you if asked to leave your home quickly in a spare bag - you might hear some people call this a grab bag."

This household essential could be of use to you at home anyway but in the event of an emergency, it's one you can't miss out on having.

The Government's Prepare website says: "Emergencies happen every day in the UK and across the world.

"They can be caused by severe weather or other natural hazards, by deliberate actions, or as a result of accidents or infrastructure failure.

"They can be events that happen quickly and are over in a few hours, or they can develop and continue over the course of several days, months, or sometimes even longer."