British Step into it again, only work 9-5 weekdays

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The deployment of HMS Dragon to Cyprus has been delayed because the naval base where it is being repaired only operates from nine to five, a union has claimed.

The warship is being sent to protect a British base on the island following its attack by Iranian drones last weekend, but its departure has been held up to allow staff to finish welding and other maintenance.

The Prospect union said the delays were exacerbated by shorter working hours introduced by the Ministry of Defence and private operator Serco for “cost-cutting” purposes.

It claimed that the Portsmouth base no longer works round the clock and usually operates from 9am to 5pm on weekdays.

Mike Clancy, the general secretary of Prospect, said: “Our members are stepping up to help, but such a vital service shouldn’t be dependent on goodwill from staff. Out-of-hours support should be locked into the contract.

Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised over deciding to deploy a Type 45 destroyer to protect the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus on Tuesday more than 72 hours after the conflict in the Middle East began.

On Wednesday, The Telegraph revealed that HMS Dragon would not arrive in the eastern Mediterranean for another fortnight, including a week of maintenance in a dry dock.

Al Carns, a defence minister, admitted the ship would not leave until engineers had finished “a variety of different bits of maintenance”.

As a result, it will arrive in Cyprus after warships from France and Spain.

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It was an acute embarrassment for Britain. UK defence officials had been discussing sending a warship but faced a problem – five of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 air-defence destroyers were out of service for repairs, while the only one on active duty, HMS Duncan, was also scheduled for routine maintenance.

Bombarded by Cypriot fury in private and calls to act from the opposition in public, Sir Keir eventually announced in his own video message at 4.09pm that Britain would rush HMS Dragon out of repairs and send it to the region.

Meanwhile, over at the White House, Mr Trump was not finished taunting the Prime Minister.

First, in a newspaper interview, he said Sir Keir’s actions meant “the relationship is obviously not what it was”. Later, at an Oval Office meeting with Mr Merz, he told reporters, unprompted, that “this is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with”.

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