Britain’s maritime response to the Iran war was slammed as “appalling and embarrassing” by former Navy chief Lord West as HMS Dragon finally departed the UK to bolster British forces in the Mediterranean.
The ex-First Sea Lord tore into past governments for cutting the size of the Royal Navy with “salami slicing” of defence funding over decades, as the Government faced growing criticism over the slow pace of deploying a warship to defend Cyprus and France sent a naval task force to join Donald Trump’s war on Iran.
