Andy Burnham has been accused of ‘prime ministerial posturing’ for authorising an emergency mobile phone alert which led to panicked Britons jamming 999 lines and startled drivers swerving across motorways.
Sirens blared out unexpectedly on millions of mobile phones across the country at 7pm on Friday, warning the public against lighting anything that could cause a wildfire, such as barbecues, firepits and fireworks.
But the Tories, who devised the system more than a decade ago, said the alert was only intended to be used in cases where there was an imminent, direct and mainly localised threat to life.
A Cabinet Office report explicitly
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