@Smeuse
Did Farage and Badenoch know?
You're asking if Farage and Badenoch knew that the UK could only put one operational carrier to sea?
That's not a state secret, it's well known and something much grumbled about discussed in places where that sort of thing is discussed so you'd expect them or their advisors to know.
When it comes to naval matters and decision making the carrier isn't really yhe problem...it's the tardiness in deciding to deploy air defence assets on the form of a Type 45 that needs addressing...there's a suspicion the spads are lining up the Chief of the Defence Staff to take the fall for that.