𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Defence Secretary John Healey was accused of belittling Britain on the world stage after appearing not to know how many warships the Royal Navy has in operation. Critics rounded on Mr Healey after an appearance on LBC radio in which he incorrectly stated Britain had 17 frigates and destroyers, when the actual number is just 13.

Mr Healey was challenged on why the Royal Navy was borrowing a German warship for a pre-planned NATO deployment after HMS Dragon was diverted to the Middle East in the wake of the war with Iran. When asked how many frigates and destroyers the United Kingdom has, Mr Healey said 17, despite the Navy only having six Type 45 destroyers and seven Type 23 frigates in commission.

Conservative MPs branded the display “truly extraordinary” and a “farce” with Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge saying “Labour ministers didn’t have a single warship in the Middle East for the first time in decades, just as war was starting”.

He added: “Meanwhile, they have failed to deliver promised NATO commitments and instead have had to rely on Germany to meet our obligations in the Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea. All this on the day it was confirmed there will be no Defence Investment Plan before Parliament breaks before Easter.”

He called the admission a “complete shambles” and demanded Sir Keir Starmer to no longer “prioritise welfare over Defence spending” which he said had forced the MOD “into a penny-pinching posture which is why they’ve slashed ship availability”.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, branded it “embarrassing” and said the Defence Secretary “belittles our nation on the world stage”. He said years of underfunding of the armed forces had rendered the Navy “virtually inoperable”, and pointed to what he said were cuts by the Conservatives.

Mr Farage added: “Reform will bring our armed forces back from the brink.”

Conservative MP and veteran Ben Obese-Jecty said it was “no wonder that the Royal Navy is in such disarray when the Defence Secretary doesn’t even know how many ships it has without it embarrassingly being whispered in his ear”.

Branding the delayed deployment of HMS Dragon as a “debacle”, he blasted the Royal Navy’s “replacement” in the flagship role of the NATO deployment because “we’ve run out of ships”.

Mr Obese-Jecty added: “At such a dangerous time the country needs a firm grip on defence, not a Defence Secretary who isn’t across the detail and is nine months late in delivering the Defence Investment Plan.”

The Defence Investment Plan, which sets out long-term spending priorities for the armed forces, was due to be published in December last year but has still not been released.

HMS Dragon was intended to take the flagship role in the NATO mission, but cannot do so as it is currently stationed off Cyprus following its deployment to the Middle East to counter Iranian aggression in the region.

The Defence Secretary denied he was embarrassed at the thought of the Navy needing to use a German stand-in vessel, saying: “This is what good allies do. The Germans have stepped in to supply their warship.”

He added that it was a sign of “the strength of the NATO alliance” and said he was “not happy with the situation we have with British warships, and that’s because it takes six years to build a warship”.

When asked why he could not make another ship available for the pre-planned NATO mission, he said: “I have to make decisions based on what we’ve got.”

He added that HMS Dragon was “preparing to play that flagship role” but the war with Iran meant it no longer could.