The Doomsday preppers stockpiling food and essentials as they warn government's 'Be Ready' survival checklist will leave Britons unprepared in an emergency

After wildfires raged across Britain this summer, war continued across the world and fears of a new 'plague' emerged from Russia, it is understandable that some may have felt the world was going to end.

Some Britons took these threats seriously and have been quietly preparing for a national emergency, even before Andy Burnham announced a 'doomsday guide' today.

With self-styled 'preppers' on the rise, the Daily Mail investigated the measures some are taking to prepare for disaster.

Ana, a 42-year-old mother living in Wales, started the UK Preppers Club group on Facebook in 2024.

The group now has nearly 17,000 members who share advice and tips on 'self-reliance', 'household resilience' and 'practical preparedness'.

Ana told the Mail the Government had been 'drip-feeding' advice on emergency preparations so far and said the 'panic' Mr Burnham's announcement had caused was 'crazy'.

Asked what the country's biggest threat was, she said: 'It's difficult to tell honestly because over the last few years we've seen it all. The [Ukraine] war's been ongoing obviously for a good few years, the issue with food security is crazy - we don't really have food security. We rely on imports, pretty much 50 per cent.'

She said the Government had 'admitted we were vulnerable but haven't done anything about it'.

Cyber attacks were 'one of the most likely' threats against Britain, she said, given they were not only a risk to banks but to supermarkets, electricity and water infrastructure too.

'But whatever potentially is going to happen, the preparedness advice and points are pretty much the same - we're talking about food, shelter and water, regardless of what happens. It's all similar.'

Ana said the Government could 'absolutely' have done more to prepare for a doomsday scenario, adding: 'They could've been more transparent with people.'

She said the official preparedness website 'semi-launched' two years ago and had run exercises which found flaws in British resilience.

And she criticised Mr Burnham's emphasis on three-day stockpiles, asking: 'What happens after three days? What's the Government going to do then?'

She said building a stockpile responsibly could involve gradually buying supplies over years.

'If they had a truly honest conversation a few years back and said "we're not stupid, we can say what's happening all around the world" - it would've been better than coming out and drip feeding us the same thing every time.'

But on the other hand, those slamming Government 'scaremongering' should look at the world with their own eyes and see the need to protect their families, she added.

The threat is not 'the old-fashioned war we expect or a nuclear war,' Ana said.

'You can look around and see that we're already in conflict, we have wildfires - which we never thought would be a huge problem in the UK but it is - there are food shortages.

'We are food vulnerable. Food is too expensive, yes shelves might not be empty yet but the supply is bad.

'It still baffles me how people can still say this isn't happening.'

She said doomsday preppers were 'not trying to cause a national outrage' but were instead trying to 'think ahead and be prepared'.

Ana said she wanted to join a prepping group in 2024 but, being a woman, was not allowed to join many established organisations.

She said she did not fit with the 'prepper' stereotype - the rural huntsmen who stockpile guns and ammunition for a Hollywood-esque apocalypse scenario.

'But real life preparedness is so much more than stockpiling weapons and hunting,' she said.

'When I created that group I wanted it to be for normal people and to change the perception of preparedness because it's not what it was many, many years ago.'

She said many households previously had a pantry stocked with ingredients whereas modern life is based around 'just in time' approaches.

And she said her group had roughly equal male and female members, which she said was 'fantastic'.

'People keep joining and understand it a little bit better. I relate to the group because it's ordinary people who just want to have peace of mind.

'They're sharing knowledge because there are people with no knowledge at all.'

She said her group offered practical tips for those who wanted to go beyond the basic list of items to build stores of.

'People have to start somewhere, but they need a little more detail on what to do with the water, for example, how to divide it up between drinking, cooking, washing, even things like flushing a toilet.

'Some people don't know what would happen if they can't flush the toilet, if there's no electricity, or no water comes out the tap, or the water coming out is contaminated.

'They're combing through the basic things, but being prepared is so much more than having the items. They're super important to know. Family planning in particular - what happens when - is essential.'

She said some families could find themselves scattered across the country in case of emergency.

Her YouTube videos include advice on no-cook emergency food to stockpile, protecting your supplies from theft and even making alcoholic ginger beer.

In the US, one doomsday prepper built an 'extreme' home bunker with £315,000 worth of emergency supplies and revealed that a family of four would need at least £5,000 in starter cash if Britain went to war.

Estate agent Rowan MacKenzie, from Missouri, said the money would buy one month's supply of food, water and supplies, plus a portable emergency kit or bug-out bag.

The average UK adult has £19,214 in savings, but there's a huge discrepancy across generations, according to 2026 research by Finder. Those under 55 have just £9,888, while 39 per cent have £1,000 or less.

Rowan, who was mocked for her intense preparedness, said she's now constantly being approached for advice on how to stay safe as tensions escalate across the globe.

'[I ask myself]: "If something happened tomorrow and I couldn't buy anything for seven days, how comfortable would my household be?" You don't need an [expensive] bunker to get started. You need a plan.'

Rowan has created a list of the 'must-haves' for every family, including cash, power sources like flashlights, shelf-stable foods, medicines and a battery-powered radio.