Royal Navy warship will not set sail for Cyprus until next week

A Royal Navy warship hastily ordered to deploy to Cyprus to help defend UK forces from Iranian air attacks will not even leave the UK until next week. Sir Keir Starmer last night said HMS Dragon would be sent to the Eastern Mediterranean after RAF Akrotiri was hit by a drone. The PM was already under fire as the Type 45 destroyer will take a week to get to the area. But Western officials believe that Dragon, which is currently in Portsmouth, will not be ready to set sail for days. It was being readied for another mission after a routine maintenance period when the call came through to prepare to go to the Mediterranean.

It was disarmed for the maintenance period and was pictured being rearmed today at the Portsmouth naval base. It means that it will arrive on station off Cyprus between two and three weeks after the base was attacked. The successful drone hit, which caused minimal damage and no casualties, prompted the Cypriot president to appeal to France and Germany for naval help. His move helped galvanise Sir Keir and Navy chiefs into action. But questions will be asked about the slow pace of the deployment. Officials have confirmed that the drone was not fired from Iran itself, amid suggestions it could have been fired by pro-Tehran forces in Lebanon.

Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch clashed on the issue at Prime Minister's Questions today. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told the Commons that Labour's priorities 'are all wrong', saying : 'He says that we are pre-deploying – the one ship which we are sending, HMS Dragon, is still in Portsmouth. The fact is the Type 45 cannot take out incoming missiles. This is not enough. 'He's read out a long list but the people who understand know it is not enough – he should be doing more.' 

Turning to the spring forecast statement which Chancellor Rachel Reeves made on Tuesday, Mrs Badenoch continued: 'Yesterday, the Chancellor could have given more money to defence. Instead, she gave more money for welfare. Their priorities are all wrong.' She asked: 'Why is he leaving the job of funding our armed forces to the next government?' Sir Keir replied: 'I'm not going to take lectures on defence from the party opposite.

They came into office and what did they do? They cut the defence budget.' Sir Keir later said: 'Not only did they cut the defence budget, they missed Army recruitment targets every year for 14 years, they left morale in our armed forces at an all-time low and our forces hollowed out – that's the words of Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary.' He later added his Government was 'delivering the biggest boost of defence spending since the Cold War – £270 billion over this Parliament'.