The prime minister’s decisions have been questioned.

Split screen grab of Martin Daubney in GB News studio talking to Simon Weston via video link

Falklands hero Simon Weston has given his opinions on Keir Starmer’s leadership (Image: GB News)

Prime minister Keir Starmer’s delays in supporting America’s current campaign against Iran has been described as “humiliating” by a Falklands war hero. Simon Weston, 64, is a Welsh veteran of the British Army who sustained severe burn injuries during the 1982 conflict. Appearing on Martin Daubney’s GB News show, he was asked about the fact that HMS Dragon – the Royal Navy warship being prepared to protect the British base in Cyprus – is still sitting in Portsmouth.

“[For] all the people that I know that have ever served in in the military, doing your job is the priority… to delay people to actually do the job that’s absolutely imminent and imperative right now, to protect British people’s lives, to protect the Cypriots is what these people have trained all their military careers for, and they must be so frustrated. But on a global scale, it’s humiliating, really, that we’ve got this ship sitting there,” he said.

HMS Dragon is a £1billion Type 45 destroyer. It is one of the trump cards in the Navy’s surface fleet alongside two Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers. Six ships make up the Daring Class, considered to be among some of the world’s most advanced warships.

Officials are scrambling to get the vessel ready to deploy to the Mediterranean but the question of why it’s taken so long has left many, including Weston, scratching their heads.

“If you’re to believe the reports about the union saying that they’re only allowed to work 9-5, is this surprising that they can’t arm the ship.

“When you think that the fleet that went to the Falklands [in 1982] was pretty much done in just over a weekend, and that was the whole fleet.

Close up of Keir Starmer looking pained

Keir Stamer’s delay in supporting America against Iran has been slammed live on TV (Image: Getty)

“So one ship, it seems a pretty stale argument to say this, that and the other – they’re getting it loaded and getting it equipped.

“…I just think it’s humiliating to the Royal Navy and to the country. I think this is a lack of willpower, more than anything else, because if you want to do something, you do it. But there really doesn’t seem to be the drive.

“And then you listen to all the rhetoric that’s been going on and the mistakes that are being made in statements that have been made by Mr. Lammy and the way they’re talking about it is just embarrassing really.

“This is supposed to be leadership. What leadership?” he fumed.