Gulf states and Cyprus have turned on Sir Keir Starmer with unusual public force, charging that Britain stood back while its allies and citizens came under fire from Iranian missiles and drones.
Bahrain and the UAE have privately registered their unhappiness with London's handling of the crisis it has been reported, while Cyprus's most senior diplomat in the UK made his country's frustration explicit — saying the bare minimum he expected from Britain was a credible defence of an island that houses two of its own military bases.
The complaints paint a picture of allies who felt abandoned during the most dangerous week the region has seen in a generation.
The proximity of the threat to UK forces became clear when Defence Secretary John Healey disclosed that an Iranian missile had come down less than 200 metres from British personnel at the naval support facility in Bahrain — positioned beside the site of a direct Iranian hit on the US Fifth Fleet headquarters. Some 300 UK service members are stationed there.
According to the Times, Washington's frustration with London centred on the days lost while Starmer withheld permission for American forces to mount defensive strikes against Iranian missile installations from joint bases including Diego Garcia. That authorisation did not come until Sunday evening, by which point Britain's regional allies had already absorbed multiple waves of Iranian fire.
A source with knowledge of the UAE's thinking was reportedly blunt: "There was a feeling that the prime minister had to be dragged there. It obviously reflects badly in the eyes of the Gulf Cooperation Council."
The UAE's irritation carried particular weight — it is home to the bulk of the estimated 300,000 Britons currently stranded across the Middle East.
British F-35s and Typhoons are flying defensive operations out of Cyprus, but HMS Dragon — the destroyer dispatched to bolster the island's defences — remains days away after being pulled from maintenance and re-equipped, the Express has reported.
The timeline of its deployment raised eyebrows. According to a western official cited in the report, the proposal to send the warship did not land on the chief of defence staff's desk until 9.30am on Tuesday — ninety-six hours after the conflict erupted and more than forty hours after a drone struck RAF Akrotiri.
Kyriacos Kouros, Cyprus's high commissioner to the UK, welcomed the ship's eventual dispatch but made no secret of his exasperation at the contrast with Britain's allies. "The French are coming. The least we expect is the Britons to also be present since, as I said, we are not only defending Cypriots on the islands," he said. Greece and France had both committed support to Cyprus before Britain moved.
However, Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters carrying Martlet drone-busting missiles are expected in Cyprus within days.
Underlying the diplomatic damage is the Cabinet rebellion that paralysed Downing Street's response in the critical opening days. The Spectator reported that Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves and Shabana Mahmood all pushed back at a National Security Council meeting on Friday against granting the US access to British bases for strikes on Iran.
Defending himself in the Commons, Starmer argued his initial refusal was grounded in the absence of a lawful basis or a "viable thought-through plan" from Washington.
Downing Street moved to contain the fallout. A spokeswoman said: "We never comment on the content of National Security Council meetings. The decision had the full support of the cabinet, including all the members of the National Security Council."
A government spokesman set out the steps taken since: "We have taken significant and concrete steps to bolster our defences in the region. Our jets — Typhoons and F-35s — have been flying regular defensive sorties from Cyprus and Qatar, successfully taking out multiple Iranian drones threatening the region.
"The prime minister has also authorised the US to use British bases for defensive missions to destroy Iran's missile capabilities. We stand ready to protect British interests and those of our allies."
