Middle East war: armed forces will be 'embarassed' by UK response, ex-Catterick colonel says
The Armed Forces will be "embarrassed" by the UK’s response to the Middle East conflict, a former Catterick colonel has said, citing the weeks it could take for warship HMS Dragon to reach the region.
Sir Keir Starmer has faced criticism from allies in Cyprus and the Gulf over the British support, after drone strikes hit RAF Akrotiri and other bases in the region.
HMS Dragon, a type 45 warship, is not set to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean until “the next couple of weeks”, the Defence Secretary has said, and the Prime Minister faced criticism from Donald Trump for now allowing the US to use British sites for offensive action against Iran.
Philip Ingram MBE, who served in the army for more than 26 years and commanded troops at Catterick Garrison, told the Yorkshire Post: “I’ve been shocked and embarrassed.
“We have been directly involved in supporting the US in the preparation of this operation, so to stop the US using Diego Garcia, [RAF] Fairford and possibly [RAF] Lakenheath in the UK is duplicitous - why allow one base to be used and say others aren’t?
“The only logic I can come up with is that Keir Starmer is concerned with upsetting his backbenchers and other members of his Cabinet.
“There are clearly domestic political concerns that he’s got and those are exacerbated by the trouncing that he got in the Gorton and Denton by-election.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Sir Keir defended himself amid Mr Trump’s criticisms.
He said: “My focus is providing calm, level-headed leadership in the national interest.
“That means deploying our military and diplomatic strength to protect our people.
“And it means having the strength to stand by our values and our principles no matter the pressure to do otherwise.
“The long-standing British position is that the best way forward for the region, and the world, is a negotiated settlement with Iran where they give up their nuclear ambitions.
“That’s why I took the decision that the UK would not join the initial strikes on Iran by the US and Israel. That decision was deliberate, it was in the national interest and I stand by it.”
However, Mr Ingram said he believed that armed forces would see Sir Keir’s actions “as a complete joke”.
“I can just imagine the conversations going on in multi-national headquarters, where British officers would be talking to their American counterparts and almost apologising about what’s going on.”
He also questioned why one of the UK’s two type-45 frigates - HMS Dragon and HMS Duncan - are not ready to deploy.
“The single biggest threat to Cyprus is a ballistic missile hitting, and the only way to protect Cyprus from that is to put a type-45 frigate off the coast,” he said.
“Why between January and now couldn’t we have had a type-45 ready?
“It shows the woeful state that our armed forces are in. That’s not just down to this Government, it’s down to a number of previous governments.”
Mr Ingram said that sources close to the Royal Navy had told him they had been asking to prepare since January, and claimed it must have been a political decision not to.
“We’ve embarrassed ourselves by not getting ahead of ourselves,” he added.
Earlier yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy denied he was embarrassed by the UK’s response.
He said: “We have F-35s, Typhoons in the sky taking down missiles as we speak and that has happened over Jordan, it’s happened over Qatar and of course, we will support nationals in the region.
“It’s also right to say that we co-ordinate with allies, the French, the Germans. Cyprus is a Nato ally, so we coordinate also with other teams and other close allies on how we equip the area.”