Second British ship being prepared to respond to Middle East crisis

A second British ship could be sent to the eastern Mediterranean if the Middle East crisis continues.

Landing ship RFA Lyme Bay is being prepared for a potential deployment to the region.

The vessel has aviation and medical facilities allowing it to assist in any evacuation effort.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “As part of prudent planning, we have taken the decision to bring RFA Lyme Bay to heightened readiness as a precaution, should she be needed to assist in maritime tasks in the eastern Mediterranean.”

Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon is due to be sent to the eastern Mediterranean to help protect Cyprus and the RAF bases there from further drone or missile attacks by Iran and its proxies.

On Monday, Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs the warship would sail from Portsmouth “in the next couple of days”.

Fears over the economic impact of the crisis triggered by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation against countries across the Middle East have eased after oil prices fell following Monday’s spike in the cost of a barrel.

Markets calmed after US President Donald Trump suggested the military action would be a “short-term excursion” rather than a more prolonged war and threatened “death, fire and fury” against Iran unless vessels were allowed through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime oil and gas route.

The price of Brent crude was more than 8% lower at just under 91 US dollars (£67) a barrel in Tuesday-morning trading, retreating from near four-year highs above 100 dollars (£74) a barrel in volatile trading on Monday.

Markets responded by recovering some of the recent ground lost in the sell-off, with the FTSE 100 Index up 1.6% soon after opening, up 165.3 at 10,414.8.

But nervousness around the potential impact of higher energy costs still lingered.

The British Chambers of Commerce forecast that inflation would remain “firmly above” the Bank of England’s 2% target, noting the “highly uncertain” global situation.

Both Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have acknowledged the war is likely to cause economic damage in the UK, with the Chancellor telling MPs it was “likely to put upward pressure on inflation” over the coming months.

Following a call with her G7 counterparts on Monday, Ms Reeves said she was ready to support “a co-ordinated release” of international oil reserves to ease the economic shock of the crisis.

She also called for action to “guarantee the security of vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz”.

Despite asking the competition watchdog to prevent wartime profiteering, the Chancellor resisted calls to cancel a planned increase in fuel duty in response to the oil price spike.

Fuel duty has been frozen since 2011 and was cut by 5p in 2022 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At her budget last year, Ms Reeves said the 5p cut would be unwound between September 2026 and March 2027, but the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK have called for her to change course.

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “The latest developments in the Middle East make it even more important for Rachel Reeves to reverse course and scrap the rise in fuel duty she announced at the budget.”

Reform’s Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick visited a petrol station in Derbyshire to cut 25p off the price of a litre in a stunt to support their proposal to reinstate the fuel duty cut.

It remains unclear how long the conflict will continue, with further strikes reported in Tehran as Mr Trump claimed the US operation was “very complete” and the Pentagon said America had “only just begun to fight”.

Iran has continued to launch strikes at Israel and the Gulf states.

The US has also withdrawn non-essential diplomatic staff from Saudi Arabia amid the continued Iranian retaliation while the UK has withdrawn the dependants of embassy staff in the United Arab Emirates “as a precautionary measure”.

A Government-chartered plane brought Britons back from Dubai in the UAE in the early hours of Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch hit back at suggestions she should apologise for claiming British forces are “just hanging around” in the Middle East.

Asked if she felt she needed to apologise for the remarks made over the weekend, the Conservative leader told the Press Association: “I was criticising the Government, that they’re not doing enough, and they are the ones hanging around.

“HMS Dragon is still in Portsmouth well over a week after it should have left.

“France has sent about 10 ships to the Mediterranean. The French president is in Cyprus.”

Mrs Badenoch added: “We are the ones who have a base in Cyprus. What is our Prime Minister doing?”

Overnight, a ground-based British unit took out a drone in Iraqi airspace which was heading towards coalition forces, the Ministry of Defence said.

British pilots have spent more than 230 hours flying on defensive operations in the region, it added.