LIVERPOOL, England — The U.K. faces threats against its energy infrastructure “all the time,” a government minister told the Labour Party annual conference. Speaking at the POLITICO Pub in Liverpool, Energy Minister Michael Shanks said we are living in an “uncertain” and “really scary world.” “There are threats against our energy infrastructure all the time. And we've seen in Ukraine very clearly [that] energy infrastructure is a very, very clear weapon of war,” he said.
Experts have warned that crucial U.K. infrastructure — including gas pipelines — are at risk of sabotage from Russia or other hostile powers. In the Strategic Defense Review, commissioned by Keir Starmer's government and published last year, officials warned that “adversaries are more willing to threaten the free flow of critical commodities such as food and energy to hold the U.K. and its allies at risk.” Earlier this year, John Healey — then the defence secretary, now chancellor under Prime Minister Andy Burnham and facing pressure to find more cash for defense — said that Russian submarines had conducted a “covert" operation near underwater infrastructure off the U.K. coast. Shanks said that in the U.K. there are “more threats than there have ever been.” He added: “Cybersecurity is becoming more and more of a risk.
We are working [at] everything we can to protect our infrastructure, to work with industry.”
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