Spain is to join France, Italy and the Netherlands in sending its navy to protect Cyprus – including a British military base – in the latest humiliation for Sir Keir Starmer and the Royal Navy.

Madrid said the frigate Cristobal Colon would join a growing EU armada in the Eastern Mediterranean to ‘offer protection and aerial defence’ and ‘support any evacuation of civilians’ from the island.

It comes after RAF Akroitiri was hit by an Iranian drone fired from Lebanon on Sunday, raising major concerns about the standard of local air defences.

Officials said the damage was minor, but last night it was revealed the drone hit a hangar used by the US for U2 spy planes flying high-altitude reconnaissance missions.

After France agreed to send frigates to protect the island, Sir Keir on Tuesday ordered Type 45 air defence destroyer HMS Dragon to sail to the region.

But it will not be ready to set sail from Portsmouth until next week, having been disarmed for planned maintenance, and could take a further week to get there.

After the Spanish announcement, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told the Rome parliament that Italy would send ‘naval assets’ to protect its fellow EU member in the coming days.

It will heap further criticism on Sir Keir over his response to the expanding military confrontation in the Middle East.

Fronting a press conference in Downing Street today the PM said he was ‘satisfied that we can keep our people safe’ as he faced questions about the UK’s preparedness.

Asked about criticism that the Government’s approach had been marked by indecision, prevarication and a lack of preparedness, the Prime Minister said Britain ‘started pre-deploying to the region in January and February, particularly to Cyprus and Qatar’.

+8
View gallery

Madrid said the frigate Cristobal Colon would join French, Italian and Dutch ships in the Eastern Mediterranean to ‘offer protection and aerial defence’ and ‘support any evacuation of civilians’

+8
View gallery

Type 45 air defence destroyer HMS Dragon (pictured today loading with missiles) will not be ready to set sail for the Eastern Mediterranean from Portsmouth until next week

+8
View gallery

Fronting a press conference in Downing Street today the PM said he was ‘satisfied that we can keep our people safe’ as he faced questions about the UK’s preparedness

This included fighter jets, air defence missiles, and anti-drone systems and was done over around eight weeks in conjunction with the US and other allies, he said.

Has Britain’s response been ‘weak’?

Yes

No

Not sure

Sir Keir added: ‘So there’s been a lot of pre-planning gone into this, a lot of pre-deployment that’s gone into this.

‘And I’m satisfied that we can keep our people safe and we’re working very hard to make sure that wherever people have registered their presence, we can help them with the information that they need and the support they need, and get them back to the United Kingdom as quickly and as safely as possible.’

The civilian race to escape descended into farce today as British nationals were delayed from returning home when the UK’s first evacuation flight failed to take off from Oman.

Terrified passengers were said to be smashing on windows and having panic attacks as they sat helplessly on the plane on the tarmac in Muscat. One described the ordeal as a ‘total s***show’.

It had been scheduled to depart from the Omani capital at 11pm GST on Wednesday, but could not ‘due to the pilot’s hours clocking up’.

The Foreign Office this morning told the Daily Mail the flight failed to take off due to ‘technical issues’. It eventually took off this afternoon.

Speaking as Reform launched its manifesto for the Welsh senedd elections, Nigel Farage said Britain had been ‘humiliated’.

‘What was for centuries the greatest naval nation on earth is now unable, for up to a fortnight, to send a Type 45 to Cyprus to defend – and remember this – British sovereign territory, with hundreds of hundreds of British people there working and their families,’ he said.

‘So we’ve managed to upset the Cypriots, we’ve managed to upset the Americans, we’ve managed to upset the UAE, Bahrain and all the other Gulf states that are on our side.

‘And now even Spain, who said they’d have nothing to do with anything, have this morning sent a destroyer (sic) to help defend Cyprus and help defend our base.

‘So we’re being defended by the Spanish, defended by the French, defended by the Greeks and incapable of defending ourselves.’

The European nations’ decision to supplement European forces around the island comes amid a warning from a former senior officer that Britain has been diminished in the eyes of its allies through its unwillingness to join attacks on Iran or defend its own interests in the region.

General Sir Richard Barrons said that Britain’s relationship with the US would be strained because the UK had ‘not turned up when they asked in the way that they asked’.

And he said that Sir Keir’s slowness in responding to 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯ian attacks on RAF Akrotiri and close to other assets in the Gulf States might leave them to ‘wonder if the UK actually has the muscle to apply in situations like this in the way that in former times we clearly did’.

He spoke to the BBC in the midst of furious political rows over Sir Keir’s reaction to Donald Trump‘s decision to start a w@r with 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯.

The UK has refused to join in the assault on Tehran, though Sir Keir has allowed the US to use its bases in Britain for defensive operations.

He is also under pressure over the snail-like pace at which a Royal navy w@rship will inch towards Cyprus.

The slow pace led to Cyprus asking France and Germany for naval help, and its high commissioner to the UK, Dr Kyriacos Kouros, last night said: ‘Let’s say the people are disappointed, the people are scared, the people could expect more.’

This morning, Defence Secretary John Healey arrived on the island, where he met his Cypriot counterpart Vasilis Palmas.

General Barrons, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a former commander of the joint forces command, led a strategic defence review for Labour last year.

Asked if the PM had been slow to react to the unfolding conflict, he told Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: ‘It has diminished the relationship between the US administration and the UK because we have not turned up when they asked in the way that they asked.

‘That was either worth doing, or we may find you could have taken a different decision in the interest of preserving that relationship with a key ally. It’s a fine judgement.

‘In the eyes of the region, however, the Gulf States, there is a sense that the UK has been slow to respond and also doesn’t have much to respond with.

+8
View gallery

Officials said the damage at Akrotiri was minor, but last night it was revealed the drone hit a hangar used by the US for U2 spy planes making high-level reconnaissance flights (pictured)

+8
View gallery

This morning Defence Secretary John Healey arrived on the island, where he met his Cypriot counterpart Vasilis Palmas

‘And they will begin to wonder if the UK actually has the muscle to apply in situations like this in the way that in former times we clearly did.’

He added: ‘It is not a great look.’

Overnight on Monday, a hangar at Akrotiri was hit by an 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯ian-made Shahed drone, which was launched from Beirut in Lebanon, according to Cypriot officials.

Two further drones detected on Monday were shot down by British w@rplanes which took off from Akrotiri.

As well as Dragon, Wildcat helicopters with anti-drone capabilities have also been dispatched to the island, and are expected to arrive there this week.

Yesterday, Dr Kouros said the deployment of HMS Dragon was welcome but noted it would take ‘more than a week’ to arrive.

And he pointedly told BBC Newsnight that Cyprus had ‘managed to bring from other countries their assets’ to help protect the country.

Asked for his message to the Prime Minister, he said: ‘I will thank him for paying attention to our voice, and that I would love to see more.’

Asked if he was reassured that the UK was building up defensive capability around Cyrus and the region he said: ‘We want to see the results. Let’s hope what we hear is true and that we are on the right track.’

Kemi Badenoch has said the UK should take offensive action against 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯after UK bases were attacked.

‘We need to do what we can to stop the ability for these attacks to take place,’ the Tory leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

‘I think that we should look at what our allies in the region are saying. Even if we’re not talking about 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯, Cyprus feels that we have not been helpful. It is extraordinary that Bahrain and Kuwait in the UAE are publicly criticising us…

‘They think that we’re abandoning them.’

She continued: ‘If your principle is, we will only wait until we are attacked rather than dealing with imminent threats properly, then we will be in a lot of trouble.’

Asked about concern over her enthusiasm for British involvement in the bombing of 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯, Mrs Badenoch said: ‘Being realistic is not gung ho. I don’t want a wider w@r.

‘But sometimes the best way to de-escalate a situation is to try and finish it quickly, rather than let it drag out because you don’t want to get involved.’