Wind-up radios are selling out across the UK after the government urged households to prepare for emergencies, with retailers reporting sharp surges in sales of radios, torches, power banks and tinned food in the days since the Be Ready campaign was refreshed.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting launched the renewed preparedness conversation in late October, asking households to keep a basic emergency kit covering about three days, including drinking water, non-perishable food, a torch, a battery-powered or wind-up radio, a power bank, blankets and essential medication. Officials have stressed the advice is about resilience to a range of disruptions, from storms and floods to cyber attacks, and is not a response to any single piece of intelligence.

What retailers reported

Figures reported by retailers and carried in broadcast and trade coverage show the scale of the response. Maplin reported radios up 92 per cent, torches up 284 per cent and power banks up 106 per cent against the same period in September, with its own-brand wind-up radio sold out by Friday. Robert Dyas recorded a 160 per cent rise in radio sales compared with the previous week, Iceland said tinned food sales rose 40 per cent over the weekend of 24 to 25 October, and one specialist seller said orders in the 24 hours after the announcement equalled a full month's usual trade.

Alert, not alarmed

Ministers have repeatedly said the public should be alert but not alarmed, and the official guidance says households need not buy everything at once. The surge is a sign of how quickly practical advice can move shopping behaviour, and retailers said stock, particularly of power banks, was already low after a summer of heatwaves and the fallout from the Iran war. Shoppers are advised to follow the official checklist rather than panic-buying, and to check the government's own guidance for what a three-day kit should contain.