Closing summary
John Healey, the defence secretary, is considering sending a Royal Navy destroyer to Cyprus to help defend British bases there after several apparently hostile drones targeted RAF Akrotiri on the island.
A government charter flight will take off from Muscat, the capital of Oman, “in the coming days”, the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said. She told MPs that 130,000 British nationals have now registered their presence in the Middle East with the Foreign Office, as the deadly conflict, started by the US and Israel, continued to widen across the region.
Downing Street said the UK had sent a “significant level of defensive capability” to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus amid reports that France plans to move air defence systems to the island after the base was hit by a drone.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said the UK remains a “staunch” ally of the US despite Donald Trump criticising Keir Starmer over the UK’s refusal to aid the offensive strikes on Iran, saying the “relationship is obviously not what it was”.
Starmer maintained that the UK’s position on Iran was lawful.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, insisted Labour had “the right economic plan” for a world that had become “yet more uncertain” as she delivered a spring forecast that downgraded growth for this year. The UK faces weaker economic growth and higher unemployment than previously expected.
A new YouGov poll showed a surge in support for the Green party, which climbed to second place (behind Reform) as Labour slumped to its lowest figure to date.
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UK sent 'significant level of defensive capability' to RAF Akrotiri, Downing Street says
The Press Association reports that Downing Street said the UK had sent a “significant level of defensive capability” to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus amid reports that France is planning to move air defence systems to the island after the base was hit by a drone.
France would send anti-missile and anti-drone systems, as well as a frigate, Cyprus government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said, confirming earlier reports.
Asked if the prospect of France sending warships to the region to defend the UK’s base was embarrassing, Starmer’s official spokesperson was quoted as having said:
I’m obviously not going to comment on other countries … I think we’ve set out multiple times the assets, the capabilities that we’ve deployed defensively to the region and that includes radar systems, air defence and F-35 jets. That is a significant level of defensive capability to our bases in Cyprus.
Britain retains sovereignty over the territory of two bases on Cyprus, which is a member of the EU. RAF Akrotiri covers a sprawling, square-shaped peninsula on the southern tip of the eastern Mediterranean island.
When asked how Starmer would describe the so-called “special relationship” between the US and the UK, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “The UK’s relationship with the US is we are staunch allies. It is reflected in decades of that special relationship, whether it is on national security, on trade or beyond.”
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