The defence secretary, Wes Streeting , says he started stockpiling food and water weeks ago in case of a national emergency, as he talked up the threats to the UK and said his department had already begun ramping up its spending in response.

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

“I’m glad the message is getting through because my mum got in touch and said ‘payday is coming up, how much do you think I need to buy because I’m just budgeting to the end of the month?’ I’m glad that people are beginning to think about their own household resilience, making sure we’ve got sufficient supplies of bottled water, canned goods, battery-powered torches.…