Why battleships did not follow the air strike ashore

Why did British battleships not follow the torpedo attack with a bombardment of Taranto?

They lacked enough carrier fighters to protect a close bombardment force from land-based air attack, and more carriers would have made the gun attack redundant.

Battleship gunfire could have inflicted heavy additional damage on Taranto. The problem was getting close enough and then withdrawing under Italian air attack. Illustrious alone did not carry enough fighters to protect a bombardment force at that range. A concentration of Illustrious, Ark Royal, and Eagle might have changed the air-defence calculation, but it would also have supplied enough strike aircraft to make the gun attack unnecessary.