MPS will come under incredible pressure this week as the Prime Minister tries to drum up support for Britain’s involvement in military action in Syria.
Reports indicate David Cameron wants the vote held in the next two weeks and the RAF in Raqqa before Christmas. He will make a statement before the House on Thursday and then, less than a week later, Tory Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will give Labour MPs a private briefing on the situation on the ground.
Cameron believes that Friday’s vote at the UN gives him the authority to mobilise the military. The PM, who was expecting the motion to be vetoed by the Russians, will dismiss the arguments of Alex Salmond and others who say it does no such thing.
Cameron further believes US requests to use our "highly focussed warheads" means there is a clear point to us being involved, that we will make a difference in the fight. And the Attorney General has seemingly advised Cameron that involvement in the region would be an act of self-defence, giving the UK a legal right to be involved.
It is now purely academic if Jeremy Corbyn allows his MPs a free vote on action in Syria. Polls in yesterday’s papers suggest that under Corbyn and McDonnell’s leadership they have haemorrhaged support in just about every social class and age group in the country. Corbyn is now less popular than David Cameron, Theresa May and George Osborne. The honeymoon is over. This will be a free vote because Labour MPs no longer respect the whip of Corbyn and his leadership team.
Frankly this, to our mind, means it is an almost certainty that Britain will find itself involved in Syria.
This is the reality of the situation.
Even if the SNP vote against military action, and it seems there may be tensions within the group on whether or not this is the right decision, Britain seems on the road to war.
It is worth looking back at the report from the Foreign Affairs Committee, published last month, before Paris. One point it made very forcefully, and one that should be made to the PM when he addresses the Commons on Thursday, is what happens next. How does this end? What are the plans when the bombs have stopped? Who will fill the void left by Daesh?
That report said: “We believe that there should be no extension of British military action into Syria unless there is a coherent international strategy that has a realistic chance of defeating [Daesh] and of ending the civil war in Syria.
“In the absence of such a strategy, taking action to meet the desire to do something is still incoherent.”
An incoherent military adventure, and massive cuts to police forces in England and Wales, does not seem much like self-defence.
We hope those MPs who support military action will make sure Cameron’s strategy is coherent.
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