‘I’ve prepped for a catastrophic solar flare with 250 days of tinned food and rations – and you should too’

I t was eight years ago that Mike, who goes by the name UK Urban Prepper, began stockpiling food and water for his family.

The 42-year-old feared the Earth could be hit by a record-strong coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun known as a solar flare , taking down satellite communications and key infrastructure.

But now, he says, he is preparing for all manner of national emergencies, including threats posed by wars across the globe, food shortages caused by severe climate change and the boom in AI – which he claims could result in “ Terminator rising up and killing us all, or just massive joblessness”.

“I‘m pleasantly optimistic and hope we muddle through – as Brits do – but everyone I speak to now is saying a national emergency is likely in the next 12 months,” says Mike.

Mike, from Greater Manchester, is known as a “prepper” who proactively prepares for disasters.

Inside his three-bedroom terraced home he shares with his finance and two-year-old daughter, Mike has packed, shelved and logged glass jars, tins and packets of food across kitchen cupboards, under the stairs, in the dining room and even in the Ottoman bed.

Categorised into three tiers – with the first being tinned foods and the third being freeze-dried packed meals – Mike has enough food supply to last his family around 250 days.

He is also one of the leading faces of a growing survivalist community in the UK with a YouTube channel with more than 15,000 subscribers.

Recent videos include a dramatised home escape during a virus outbreak to an underground bunker. In another, he commentates on a 90-day scenario following a “British collapse” with a ticker predicting 90 per cent of the population would be wiped out.

“The biggest thing with preppers is we could be wrong on 365 days of the year,” Mike tells The Independent . “And every time we’re wrong it will justify people who don’t prep or say ‘I told you nothing would happen’.

“But the one time, if we are right once, we’re OK, but for everyone else it will impact their life massively. It doesn’t affect me if I’m wrong. I get to go on holiday, I do lovely stuff with my kids. I don’t want to be right, but what if?”

Mike is not alone in his views. More than half-a-dozen UK-based social media groups feature posts on advice from batch cooking curries to conspiracy theories warning of future disasters.

Geographical zones have also been created for survivalists to create secret meet-ups or share emergency alerts.

A group called Silent Legion, calling itself the largest community resilience organisation in the UK and boasting members of all walks of life including carers, veterans and “everyday folks”, offers support with food security and tactical movement.