The government’s attempts to fly home Brits stranded in Libya has met with criticism after a plane it chartered failed to leave Gatwick and it was forced to borrow an aircraft from BP.
The original plane suffered mechanical failure and was stuck at the airport for 10 hours. And HMS Cumberland, which was to be scrapped but was instead sent to second city Benghazi, has had to wait for permission to dock, further delaying evacuation of British citizens.
Foreign Secretary William Hague has since dispatched an RAF Hercules aircraft from Malta to Tripoli.
Labour’s foreign affairs minister Douglas Alexander said the government had simply not reacted quick enough to the crisis.
Meanwhile, many other countries including France, Russia and the Netherlands have successfully evacuated all their nationals.
Said Alexander: “William Hague should explain why the Government appears to have been slow off the mark.”
Hague has promised that Britain will send in as many planes as it takes to rescue nationals but said it would be preferable for them to leave by commercial and charter planes rather than military ones, which need permission to enter Libyan airspace.
There are thought to be around 300 British nationals still in and around Tripoli and a further 170 working in the oil sector in desert camps.
by Dinah Hatch
