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

French President Emmanuel Macron has already ordered France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its strike group to redeploy from the Baltic Sea. Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure over his slow response to the Iran crisis and his lack of support for US air strikes, which has been slammed by Donald Trump.

The US president compared the Prime Minister unfavourably with Mr Macron, saying that France had offered greater backing.

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

On Sunday night, an Iranian drone hit the runway at RAF Akrotiri, a crucial UK air base on Cyprus, although officials said that it caused minimal damage.

A further two drones bound for the base were intercepted on Monday as Tehran launched a series of counter-attacks across the region in response to the US air strikes.

In a statement posted on social media site X, Sir Keir said: “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 slow.

Writing in the Express, shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, said the Prime Minister’s response to the wider Middle East crisis has been one of “paralysis”.

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

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

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage blamed defence underfunding by both Labour and the Tories.

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

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

As well as redeploying his country’s flagship aircraft carrier, France is also expected to send Horizon-class and FREMM-class frigates, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, two fuel-supply ships and up to 40 aircraft.

On top of this, Mr Macron has also ordered anti-drone weapons and another frigate to the eastern Mediterranean.

Mr Macron contacted Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus, early on Tuesday to inform him of the decision, a Cypriot government source told Reuters.

The French ships and planes would be able to defend Britain’s RAF Akrotiri from Iranian attacks.

It came after Mr Trump said 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 start of the war.

Gulf states are also understood to have expressed concern at Sir Keir’s reticence, even as around 300,000 Britons are in the countries under fire from Iran.

Greece dispatched four ⁠F-16 fighter jets to the island on Monday. Two frigates, one equipped with its anti-drone Centauros jamming system, were also sailing to Cyprus.

Centauros, which has been successfully deployed against Houthi ⁠rebels attacking shipping lanes off Yemen, has the capability of detecting and incapacitating low-flying drones, such as the one that crashed into RAF Akrotiri and evaded radars, Cypriot defence sources said.

The Royal Navy has six Type 45 destroyers, three of which are in deep maintenance.