Ministers are “unprepared” for another crisis like Covid, Labour has warned after a crucial strategy plan fell off the radar.
The government initially planned to publish its resilience plan – promised 18 months ago – in July.
But the strategy, intended to help the country cope with the unexpected, was delayed by two changes of Prime Minister in the space of three months.
As recently as October, ministers were promising to launch it in ‘the Autumn’.
Last night the Cabinet Office insisted it was technically still Autumn until December 21.
But Labour said the strategy had fallen to the “very bottom of the Tories’ to-do-list”.
The plan is the ultimate responsibility of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – a role that has been taken by five different MPs since the strategy was originally promised.
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PA)
Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General, Fleur Anderson MP, said: “This is despite a global pandemic, record temperatures, an unprecedented cost of living crisis and the prospect of energy blackouts and more floods exposing time and time again how unprepared this Government is for a crisis.
“They said it would be ready by Autumn, but Winter is already upon us. How many more national emergencies is it going to take for them to wake up? They must publish their National Resilience Strategy without further delay.”
Launching preparations for the Strategy last year, then-Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt said the pandemic had shown the importance of “well developed plans and capabilities, along with flexible response structures that can adapt and respond to the unexpected.”
She added: “We know there will be more major challenges in the future.
“We need a National Resilience Strategy to help us prepare for these challenges.”
Ms Anderson added: “This chaotic Tory Government’s conveyor belt of Ministers has left Britain lagging behind events. They’ve been dragging their heels on resilience, and they’re demonstrating they simply cannot be trusted to protect the public from the emergencies of tomorrow.
“After twelve years of Tory complacency, the next Labour Government will never leave our country with such a soft underbelly. Our plan for a more resilient Britain would ensure a whole-system approach to preparing for national emergencies, overhaul local resilience forum infrastructure and create a resilience culture at the heart of society.”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The first duty of any government is to keep the public safe. That’s why we are further strengthening how we prepare for and respond to emergencies, boosting the effective resilience capability we already have in place.
“We will shortly publish our comprehensive strategy for resilience which is already being put into practice across Government. There are robust contingency plans in place to ensure that the country is ready to meet the challenges of winter and beyond.”