Britain’s war footing is built on sand – Heathrow’s power vulnerability exposes a national security crisis

21 March 2025, 15:39

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a rise in defence spending last month, telling Parliament that Britain was now on a ‘war footing’.

However, being on a war footing doesn’t just mean bolstering our armed forces - It means ensuring security across every aspect of national life, including transport and energy.

Few things highlight our lack of preparedness more starkly than the reality that a single substation fire can cripple Heathrow Airport, arguably one the nation’s most critical infrastructure assets – with approximately 84 million visitors in 2024.

More than 1,350 flights are thought to have been affected by the fire, leaving thousands of travellers either stranded or diverted – with cases of people being flown to the Netherlands and other neighbouring countries.

Apparently, our Plan B for Heathrow is to outsource passengers to Schiphol — not exactly the mark of a world-leading transport hub.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves used support for the construction of a third runway as the great exemplar of the Government’s pro-growth agenda. Meanwhile our waning infrastructure doesn’t appear to be able to support the runways we already have.

It begs serious questions about the precarity of the nation’s security. Heathrow’s power outage highlighted a serious lack of foresight. One that may leave us vulnerable to future threats.

It’s hard to imagine this incident hasn’t caught the attention of foreign adversaries. If the Kremlin wasn’t already aware of how exposed key British infrastructure is, they certainly are now.

Commenting on the spectacle on show to the world, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took to X to make fun of the situation, posting, ‘I'm looking forward to Russia being blamed for the Heathrow fire. What are you waiting for, Starmer?’

The vulnerability of a site as critical as Heathrow offers a ready-made blueprint for those looking to inflict maximum disruption with minimal effort.

Dr Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, summed it up bluntly in The Times: ‘Fires happen. But they shouldn’t be capable of taking out an entire airport.’ His warning is clear — the fact that a single point of failure could have such catastrophic effects suggests that our backup systems are woefully inadequate.

A full national audit of critical infrastructure is now essential, not optional.

We need to know where these weak points are — not after the next disaster, but now.

Being on a ‘war footing’, as our Prime Minister put it, means more than just spending billions on defence.

It means ensuring that the foundations of the country — its power, transport, and health systems — are resilient enough to withstand both accidents and attacks.

Otherwise, we’re always just another spark away from chaos.

Thomas Munson is a Policy Manager at the Henry Jackson Society

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