If Britain had not invested so much money in two large aircraft carriers, there would have been more money available for more destroyers and frigates. Does Britain really need these two huge assets? It seems clear that a fleet of many more smaller vessels would be much more useful - not only in places like The Gulf, but also around the coast of Britain to control immigration, and perhaps fishing rights after Brexit.
The Royal Navy is seriously short of ships. Had every British vessel been escorted through the Straits of Hormuz after the oil tanker carrying Iranian oil was stopped and taken to Gibralter, this would not have happened. You don't need too much imagination to see that this tit-for-tat escalation would soon start. But we are now almost impotent.