Fears for British oilmen at mercy of marauding armed gangs in Libya

UK officials have held talks with Nato allies – with an SAS contingent reportedly on stand-by to help the operation.

As the first British nationals to be evacuated from the strife-torn North African state began arriving in the UK yesterday, David Cameron said he was “extremely sorry” for the delays to the rescue and promised lessons would be learned.

The Prime Minister, who is returning from a trip to the Gulf, will chair back-to-back meetings of the National Security Council and the Cobra emergency committee today to try to reassert control after days of apparent drift in Whitehall.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the Government had been too slow to react as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi brutally cracked down on demonstrators demanding his overthrow.

The sense of confusion in Whitehall was underlined when Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was quoted as saying that he “forgot” that he was supposed to be in charge in Mr Cameron’s absence.

Altogether 132 UK nationals arrived in Malta from Tripoli on the much-delayed Foreign Office-chartered flight while another 51 followed on an RAF Hercules yesterday. Another 79 landed at Gatwick on a plane chartered by BP.

Later, more than 100 UK citizens were preparing to leave Libya’s second city, Benghazi, on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Cumberland, which will take them to Malta, for flights to the UK.