Britain’s Royal Navy left trailing as Emmanuel Macron deploys French naval task force in Trump’s Iran war

Britain could struggle to respond to a direct military threat, says a former National Security Adviser as the Government faced growing questions over the slow pace of deploying a warship to defend Cyprus.

Lord Sedwill, who was also Cabinet Secretary, said Emmanuel Macron had jumped “opportunistically” into deploying French vessels to fill the gap left by the UK’s naval shortcomings.

Since then it has emerged that HMS Prince of Wales will not be deployed to the war zone, with claims in France, denied by the Ministry of Defence, that Britain did not have enough warships to accompany it and would have had to rely on French vessels.

With a growing spotlight on the effectiveness of the Royal Navy, the French President has pledged to defend Cyprus and dispatch additional warships to the Eastern Mediterranean to strengthen allies’ security in the region unsettled by the Iran war.

Mr Macron landed on the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Mediterranean, after visiting Cyprus on Monday, as he sought to project French power.

Macron had ordered the French frigate Languedoc to waters off Cyprus, a fellow European Union member, to bolster its anti-drone and anti-missile defences.

He also said he would deploy eight warships, two helicopter carriers and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, equipped with its 20 Rafale fighter jets, to the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider Middle East, calling France’s move “unprecedented.”

Asked if the French president was filling and highlighting a gap in Britain’s ability to deploy ships to the Mediterranean, Lord Sedwill said: “Yes, he is opportunistic politically.

“But there is an important strategic agenda there as well which is that France has gradually and recently made announcements on extending its own defence umbrella more effectively to the rest of the EU, in particular the nuclear umbrella.

“President Macron would have seen this as an opportunity to demonstrate that French forward-leaning, forward defence stance.

“But it’s true, we have struggled to deploy ships to that region.”

The peer praised the Royal Navy for “heroic efforts” to get HMS Dragon ready in a few days to deploy.

But he stressed: “All of our destroyers were under maintenance.

“That is evidence of the fact that under successive governments there has been an erosion of the basics, the maintenance, the training, the ordnance supplies, that keep an effective force ready to deploy.”

He added that Britain was paying a price for its stance on the Iran war, with anger in Washington and concerns in some Gulf states that it had not taken “more robust” action.

“If this had been a more direct attack on the UK, on our interests, then we would have been struggling,” he argued, stressing the urgent need to get existing forces up to “fighting readiness”.

French defence analyst Louis Duclos also highlighted the state of Britain’s armed forces.

“At the same time as the Royal Navy is going through difficulties, France is demonstrating its ability to fill the gaps and its determination to support its European partners,” he messaged on X.

“Our work, among allies, must be complementary, of course, but we must hope that the British improve quickly.”

Justice minister Sarah Sackman defended the UK’s response, telling Sky News: “It’s not about one ship.

“There are currently British servicemen in the air that are taking out drones, that are protecting British interests.”

The Royal Navy is preparing RFA Lyme Bay to sail towards the Middle East from Gibraltar if required, Downing Street confirmed.