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UK considers sending Royal Navy destroyer to Cyprus
Dan Sabbagh
You can now read the full story on our earlier reports in the blog that the government is considering sending warship HMS Duncan to Cyprus, here:
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.
Defence sources said a deployment of HMS Duncan, currently in Portsmouth, was under discussion as a way to better protect the base in Cyprus – though another said it was possible one of two other destroyers might be sent as an alternative.
HMS Duncan is specialised in counter-drone operations and last month was engaged on a test exercise off the coast of Wales facing swarms of drones, before hosting a family day on Friday. It is not clear how ready it is to set sail.
Key events
Closing summary
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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”.
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Starmer maintained that the UK’s position on Iran was lawful.
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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.
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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.
Thanks for joining us. We are closing this blog now. You can find all our latest coverage of UK politics here.
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.”
Starmer tells ministers that UK’s position on Iran was lawful
Keir Starmer told ministers the UK’s position on Iran was lawful as he chaired a Cabinet meeting earlier today. A readout of the meeting from Downing Street read:
Turning to events in Iran, the prime minister set out the seriousness of the position and the decision the UK had taken on Sunday.
He said the decision was lawful and in the UK’s national interest, adding that the UK was taking the steps necessary to protect British interests and British lives.
He was referring to the decision to allow the US to use UK bases for defensive strikes, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said.
“He then opened discussion on Iran to Cabinet, including on the ongoing contingency planning by the government for the more than 300,000 British citizens currently in the Gulf.”
Failure to implement leasehold reforms will ‘damage parliament’ in eyes of the public, Rayner warns
Ben Quinn
Failure to implement promised leasehold reforms will “damage parliament” because it will look like “vested interests” have won out, MPs have been warned by Angela Rayner, who had championed the plans as housing minister.
Rayner, influential as a backbencher and widely seen as a potential challenger to Keir Starmer, hammered the point home at a joint appearance at a parliamentary committee alongside her ministerial predecessor, Michael Gove.
Now that he was “liberated from his obligations” as a minister, he said that he could say that business interests opposing the reforms have been supported from within the Treasury.
Labour’s 2024 election manifesto had promised to “finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end” while reforms have been published in a draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill.
Rayner said she and Gove both agreed that there had to be the shortest period of transition to the new system and a recent high court defeat for freeholders had showed it was “a battle we can win.”
“We have had successive governments saying they are going to do it. You can see there is a political will … you can see that with Michael and I being here as a double act today and I think you have seen it through the will of the people,” she told the Commons Housing Committee.
“I think too slow action on it will be damaging for us as a parliament because it looks like the vested interests win over the will of the people,” said Rayner, who called on the government to adopt proposals to introduce an independent regulator in the sector. “Quite frankly it’s not a political point. It’s a right or wrong.”
The legislation would ban the sale of new leasehold flats and give homeowners greater control over how buildings are managed but does not cover specific measures to regulate managing agents.
Steven Morris
The leader of Welsh Labour, Eluned Morgan, said on Monday that her party is a patriotic protector of her country as she tries to fend off the twin threats of Plaid Cymru from the left and Reform UK from the right.
Launching Welsh Labour’s Senedd election campaign, the first minister said: “Welsh Labour will always be proud to be patriots and to stand up for our country. I’ve always been a patriot. It is absolutely central to my core political beliefs.”
Morgan chose the market in Newport, south-east Wales, as the venue for the campaign launch and invoked the spirit of the Chartists, who marched there in 1839 to demand democratic reform. “When you look back now, you see what they really were: patriots,” she said. “People who loved their country enough to want it to be better. That is the kind of patriotism I believe in.”
When asked if she was happy that Keir Starmer looked set to remain as prime minister in the run-up to May’s Welsh parliament elections, Morgan replied: “Yes.”
But she also sought to underline the difference between the parties: “Welsh Labour has a distinctive identity,” she said.
A central charge Welsh Labour will have to defend during its campaign is that it has dominated politics in Wales for a century but has failed to get on top of NHS waiting lists, education standards and the economy. You can read more here:
Welsh Conservatives promise to ‘fix Wales’ as they launch manifesto
The Welsh Conservatives have launched their manifesto ahead of the Senedd election on 7 May.
The party’s manifesto includes pledges to reverse the default 20mph speed limit in Wales and the expansion of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members.
The party has also promised to scrap land transaction tax, the Welsh equivalent of stamp duty, and offer tuition fee discounts for people studying Stem subjects.
Darren Millar, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, said he was launching a “rescue mission” and told his audience he has a plan to “fix Wales” as he delivered his speech to supporters at St David’s Hotel in Cardiff.
Among promises to the voters, Millar said a Conservative government would declare a “health emergency” in Wales, ban social media in school classrooms and commission an independent judge-led inquiry into grooming gangs in Wales.
Millar said on Tuesday:
Labour have failed Wales, they did not do it alone, they were propped up by Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats over 27 years. A vote for any of those parties is a vote for more of the same.
Neither Reform or the Green Party are serious political parties, they offer slogans without offering any real or credible solutions.
They pose a risk to Wales and our national and economic security and they lack the experience and passion that Wales needs in this critical hour.
People in Wales are crying out for change, today we give them hope that it can be delivered.
Ahead of May’s Senedd elections, polls suggest the nationalist Plaid Cymru will form the next government, but Reform UK is also in with a chance of winning. Labour has led Wales since the Senedd was first established as the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 under Tony Blair’s government.
In other news, MPs’ basic salary will rise by 5% to £98,599 a year from April, Westminster’s expenses watchdog, the independent parliamentary standards authority (Ipsa), has said.
Their £93,904 annual salary is expected to reach £110,000 by the end of the parliament, due in 2029. Median gross annual earnings for full-time employees in the UK were £39,039 in April 2025, according to the ONS, with many people’s salaries lagging way behind rising prices amid the high cost of living.
As my colleague Jessica Elgot notes in this story, Ipsa said the MP’s pay had been benchmarked against other similar roles in the public sector as well as parliamentarians around the world in similar democracies.
“The role of an MP has evolved,” said Ipsa’s chair, Richard Lloyd. “MPs are dealing with higher levels of complex casework than ever before, driven by economic pressures and global and domestic events. Abuse and intimidation towards MPs and their staff have also been growing, and there are increasing risks to their safety.” You can read more about the rise – which will undoubtedly prove unpopular with many voters – here:
Spring forecast: Reeves insists Labour has ‘right economic plan’ as 2026 growth downgraded
Heather Stewart
Rachel Reeves insisted Labour has “the right economic plan” for a world that has become “yet more uncertain” as she delivered a spring forecast that downgraded growth for this year.
The chancellor was addressing MPs against the backdrop of surging energy prices, as investors fret about the impact of the spiralling conflict in the Middle East. The cost of a barrel of Brent crude was up another 7% on Tuesday, at $83.20.
Reeves said she was in close touch with the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, as they monitor the situation and would meet representatives of the North Sea energy industry on Wednesday.
You can also follow our live coverage here:
UK considers sending Royal Navy destroyer to Cyprus
Dan Sabbagh
You can now read the full story on our earlier reports in the blog that the government is considering sending warship HMS Duncan to Cyprus, here:
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.
Defence sources said a deployment of HMS Duncan, currently in Portsmouth, was under discussion as a way to better protect the base in Cyprus – though another said it was possible one of two other destroyers might be sent as an alternative.
HMS Duncan is specialised in counter-drone operations and last month was engaged on a test exercise off the coast of Wales facing swarms of drones, before hosting a family day on Friday. It is not clear how ready it is to set sail.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has insisted in her Spring forecast that her economic plan is ‘even more important’ given Middle East crisis.
Her statement comes amid backdrop of economic and geopolitical turmoil, including gas prices at three-year high.
If you are wondering why we aren’t covering here, it is because my colleague Graeme Wearden is doing a thorough job of it in our business blog:
Council halts legal action against Home Office over asylum seeker accommodation
Diane Taylor
A council at the centre of a row about Home Office’s decision to use a cadet training camp in Crowborough, East Sussex, to accommodate asylum seekers, confirmed on Tuesday morning it will not be pursuing or supporting any further legal action against the Home Office for its use of the site.
In a statement Wealden District Council officials said they had been advised that to pursue a new judicial review against the Home Office’ is unlikely to achieve anything of practical value and that a claim could be counterproductive. The council’s view is it would be morally wrong to stay silent about this legal advice, because to do so would raise false hope and would probably be a waste of taxpayer’s money.’
Resident group Crowborough Shield’s legal challenge was rejected in the high court last Friday because the judge deemed them to have jumped the gun by starting the claim before the Home Office had made its final decision about moving asylum seekers on to the site. Residents have staged 17 weekly demonstrations protesting about use of the site for asylum seekers.
The council statement added that lawyers have not identified any legal argument that would stop the home secretary from using Crowborough Camp for asylum accommodation.
Leader of the council, Councillor James Partridge, said, “Whilst this comes as a major disappointment to us all, it would be wrong of the council to remain silent about its legal advice. We all wanted to stop the Home Office as this camp is good for no one. The Home Office has failed Crowborough. But to keep fighting a legal challenge that is doomed to fail helps nobody.
UK government charter flight will take off from Oman ‘in the coming days’, says home secretary
A government charter flight will take off from Muscat, Oman, “in the coming days”, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has told the Commons.
Cooper said that Britain was working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat, Oman to prioritise the evacuation of vulnerable British nationals.
Cooper said she was in close contact with her counterparts in the Gulf countries, where 130,000 British citizens have now registered their presence in the region.
“We are also working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals, with priority for vulnerable nationals,” Cooper said.
“A government charter fight will fly from Muscat in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable nationals, but British nationals in Oman must wait to be contacted by the Foreign Office regarding these options.“
As a reminder, the spring forecast coverage is being led by Graeme Wearden in our business live blog. Rachel Reeves is set to begin delivering her statement from 12.30pm:
Hamish Falconer, a Foreign Office minister and former diplomat, was next to answer questions from MPs. He was asked about illegal Israeli settlement expansion and pressed on whether the government is going to do more to show its opposition through practical measures.
Q: Labour’s Middlesbrough and Thornaby East MP, Andy McDonald: Given the scale of sanctions that the UK is willing to impose on Russia, when will the government impose meaningful trade measures, arms controls and sanctions that match the scale of Israel’s illegal actions?
A: Falconer: My friend, is right in his characterisation in the increase in settlements. That increase has also been accompanied by a very concerning increase in settler violence itself. I know many members will have been shocked by some of the footage that they have seen of these incidents.
The foreign secretary has raised these issues directly, including the risks of instability that they cause with Israel’s foreign minister, foreign minister Sa’ar in New York last month. We will not accept attempts to advance settlement expansion under the cover of regional instability. We will consider concrete steps in accordance with international law to counter this expansion.
Cooper said she announced nearly 300 new sanctions against Russian revenue streams and military supply chains on her diplomatic visit to Kyiv last week.
“We are going more broadly, not just around the shadow fleet and directly on oil and gas companies in Russia itself, but also targeting, those that might support them in third countries as well. But this was our largest Russian sanctions package since 2022. And it’s important that we get other countries to support that as well.”
Russia has been accused of finding ways to circumvent European sanctions.
Answering questions in the Commons, the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, stressed the importance of continuing to support Ukraine.
“This is about our security as well as Ukraine’s security,” Cooper said, as she outlined the UK government’s military support to Kyiv and the sanctions imposed on Russia, targeting Moscow’s shadow fleet, along with sectors of the country’s economy.
The government has estimated that UK, EU and US sanctions have denied Russia access to at least $450bn since February 2022, when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched.
UK considering sending warship to Cyprus to defend RAF airbase
Dan Sabbagh
John Healey, the defence secretary, is considering sending Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan to Cyprus to help defend the Akrotiri RAF airbase from any future drone attacks.
Though a final decision has not been made, multiple sources said a deployment of the warship, currently in Portsmouth, was under discussion as a way to better protect the base in Cyprus.
HMS Duncan is specialised in counter drone operations and last month was engaged on a test exercise off the coast of Wales facing swarms of drones, before hosting a family day on Friday.
No major Navy warships are currently in or have been sent to the Middle East, even though the conflict is now in its fourth day, while concerns have been raised about the ease of which Akrotiri’s air defences were breached.
One drone, thought by Cypriot authorities to have been flown from Hezbollah controlled territory in Lebanon, crashed on to the runway at around midnight yesterday and two other drones were intercepted thereafter.
It would take several days for the HMS Duncan to reach Cyprus from Portsmouth as it travels at about 30 knots (34.5mph).
Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Ellie Chowns called for a parliamentary vote on “any UK involvement in this war”.
“We are not at war,” Keir Starmer responded, adding: “We are not getting involved in offensive action that the US and Israel are taking.”
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