Britain scrambles warship to Cyprus after France deploys service | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Keir Starmer has been accused of a “dereliction of duty” over defending British army bases, after lastly deploying a warship to guard Cyprus from Iranian assaults. The Royal Navy is sending HMS Dragon, a Type-45 destroyer, to the area after an RAF base was attacked by Iranian drones.

French President Emmanuel Macron has already ordered France’s nuclear-powered plane service Charles de Gaulle and its strike group to redeploy from the Baltic Sea. Sir Keir Starmer is underneath rising strain over his gradual response to the Iran disaster and his lack of help for US air strikes, which has been slammed by Donald Trump.

The US president in contrast the Prime Minister unfavourably with Mr Macron, saying that France had supplied better backing.

“He has not been helpful,” the president mentioned. “I never thought I’d see that from the UK.”

On Sunday night time, an Iranian drone hit the runway at RAF Akrotiri, a vital UK air base on Cyprus, though officers mentioned that it brought on minimal harm.

An extra two drones certain for the bottom had been intercepted on Monday as Tehran launched a sequence of counter-attacks throughout the area in response to the US air strikes.

In an announcement posted on social media website X, Sir Keir mentioned: “The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there.

“We’re continuing our defensive operations and I’ve just spoken with the President of Cyprus to let him know that we are sending helicopters with counter drone capabilities and HMS Dragon is to be deployed to the region.

“We will always act in the interest of the UK and our allies.”

But opposition politicians criticised the Government’s response for being far too gradual.

Writing within the Express, shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, mentioned the Prime Minister’s response to the broader Middle East disaster has been one among “paralysis”.

“One of our most strategically important military bases is under threat – and its other nations taking the lead to defend it,” he mentioned.

He added: “This is a dereliction of duty from a weak Prime Minister – and Britain deserves stronger leadership.”

Reform UK chief Nigel Farage blamed defence underfunding by each Labour and the Tories.

“This is what Labour and the Tories have reduced us to,” he mentioned in a submit on X.

“Defence of the realm is the first duty of any government. They have both failed at this task miserably.”

As effectively as redeploying his nation’s flagship plane service, France can also be anticipated to ship Horizon-class and FREMM-class frigates, a nuclear-powered assault submarine, two fuel-supply ships and as much as 40 plane.

On prime of this, Mr Macron has additionally ordered anti-drone weapons and one other frigate to the jap Mediterranean.

Mr Macron contacted Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus, early on Tuesday to tell him of the choice, a Cypriot authorities supply instructed Reuters.

The French ships and planes would have the ability to defend Britain’s RAF Akrotiri from Iranian assaults.

It got here after Mr Trump mentioned that he was “very disappointed” in Sir Keir after he refused to let the US use the Chagos Islands base of Diego Garcia to launch strikes on Iran at the beginning of the battle.

Gulf states are additionally understood to have expressed concern at Sir Keir’s reticence, at the same time as round 300,000 Britons are within the nations underneath fireplace from Iran.

Greece dispatched 4 ⁠F-16 fighter jets to the island on Monday. Two frigates, one outfitted with its anti-drone Centauros jamming system, had been additionally crusing to Cyprus.

Centauros, which has been efficiently deployed in opposition to Houthi ⁠rebels attacking delivery lanes off Yemen, has the potential of detecting and incapacitating low-flying drones, such because the one which crashed into RAF Akrotiri and evaded radars, Cypriot defence sources mentioned.

The Royal Navy has six Type 45 destroyers, three of that are in deep upkeep.