Britain was branded ‘irrelevant’ as it emerged HMS Dragon will not reach Cypriot waters until next Monday at the earliest – three weeks after a drone hit a UK base on the island.
The Type 45 Destroyer was seen moored in Gibraltar yesterday, some 2,200 miles away from its intended target, after it finally left Portsmouth a week ago.
It is travelling at under 15 knots and will not arrive before next week in response to an Iranian strike on RAF Akrotiri on March 2, sources told the Daily Mail.
Politicians and former Navy commanders criticised Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for not having prepared for the Iran war while it had been looming for months.
Israeli Knesset member Dan Illouz said: ‘The way Starmer’s government has behaved has made them irrelevant in the free world.
‘If Britain is too hesitant to project strength and protect its own assets, its relevance and reliability as an ally to the rest of the free world are deeply compromised.’
Former Navy commander Tom Sharpe said the Government ‘should have foreseen this’.
Referring to HMS Dragon, he said: ‘She has been sent to look after Akrotiri when that got hit. Well, she should have been there before the war happened. Or if not then, at immediate notice to burst out of the door and get there if something happened.’
HMS Dragon was seen moored in Gibraltar yesterday, some 2,200 miles away from its intended target
It finally left Portsmouth a week ago. But the Type 45 Destroyer is travelling at under 15 knots and will not arrive before next week
Former US Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates said what has happened with the Starmer government is ‘sad’.
‘Starmer appears to be clutching at straws to make himself relevant,’ she said.
‘He is much more concerned with international law than he is with British sovereignty.’
Britain has become a laughing stock in Cyprus, where a Government official joked to the Daily Mail: ‘Clearly you are not in a rush.’
Another diplomat on the island said the warship’s ‘compass seems to be confused’ after it was spotted in Gibraltar.
It took a week for HMS Dragon to set sail in response to the drone strike, while France, Greece and Italy sent warships to Cyprus’s defence despite it being a British base that was hit.
Britain has maintained Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) at Akrotiri and Dhekelia since Cyprus won independence in 1960. They are British Overseas Territory, meaning the UK pays no rent.
Britain argues that UK military presence keeps Cypriots safe from threats in the Middle East as well as from Turkey, which invaded northern Cyprus in 1974.
However, the drone strike on March 2 and Britain’s slow response has added to growing sentiment that the bases only endanger the Cypriot people.
Vera Polycarpou, of the opposition party AKEL, said: ‘Now the people doubt whether there is any use for Cyprus to have the bases here.’
Locals are also outraged that Britain still has not sent a single warship. Nicholas Andreou, 35, an engineer from Zakaki, near Akrotiri, said: ‘It is frustrating. What’s happening now is happening because of your base. Cyprus is in danger because of the English base.’
Andreas, 33, from Akrotiri, said: ‘The locals here have problems with the British. The British don’t know how to act any more.’
It comes after US President Donald Trump criticised Britain on Monday, saying it ‘should be involved enthusiastically’.
Dame Priti Patel, Shadow Foreign Secretary, said Britain’s defence and security ‘cannot be outsourced to other countries’.
She added: ‘The Government’s inability to get a single warship into the region for three weeks after an attack on one of our bases is symptomatic of Starmer’s approach to this conflict, which is leaving our allies to protect British interests and assets.’
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: ‘We have deployed HMS Dragon, equipped with the cutting-edge Sea Viper missile system which can take down drones and missiles, to play a vital role in safeguarding UK assets and interests in the Middle East.
‘This is one element of our wider approach.’