JEREMY Corbyn was coming under pressure to allow his MPs a free vote on air strikes in Syria. It looks increasingly likely that MPs could be asked to make a decision on military action as soon as Wednesday afternoon.
Labour’s shadow cabinet meets this morning to discuss the party’s position, yesterday, Corbyn insisted the final decision would be his. It will then be revealed to backbenchers at what could be an explosive session of the Parliamentary Labour Party tonight.
Most of the Labour shadow cabinet are thought to favour backing military action against Daesh in Syria, and rough calculations suggest at least 60, and maybe up to 100 Labour MPs would also back the Government’s position.
Some reports yesterday suggested if Corbyn whipped the party into voting against the action then the Tories would likely cancel any vote for fear of being defeated.
Such a decision would, however, only fuel the intense rebellion against Corbyn by his own cabinet and backbenchers.
There was support for free vote from Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Deputy Leader Tom Watson.
Corbyn said on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “No decision has been made on that yet, I am going to find out what MPs think.
“Obviously there are strong views on both directions. We will have a further discussion on this. We will make that decision not at this moment but later on.”
On Friday night, the Labour leader emailed party members and supporters to ask for their views on what he should do. Corbyn told Marr that 70,000 responses had come in.
“My view about the membership of the Labour Party, they must have a voice,” he said.
“Labour MPs need to listen to that voice, they need to try and understand where people are coming from on this. We will come to a decision as a party.”
Corbyn, who, in his 30-year career has rebelled against the party whip 500 times, said: “I understand dissent, I understand disagreement from leadership.”
The Labour leader also dismissed calls to stand down: “I’m not going anywhere. I am enjoying every moment of it.”
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said he could not be sure if the Government has the majority needed to back the intervention.
Fallon said: “We’re working at it and we need to keep working at it because there are lots of questions about this, you shouldn’t extend military operations lightly, there are legitimate questions to answer and we’re doing our best to answer them.”
The Defence Secretary then went on reject claims that bombing Raqqa and other Daesh-held cities would lead to a large number of civilian casualties, suggesting that the RAF’s precision airstrikes would, if anything, lead to fewer civilian deaths.
Fallon said: “The RAF have been striking with the permission of Parliament in Iraq for over a year now and our estimate is there hasn’t yet been a single civilian casualty because of the precision of their strikes.
“They have been carefully targeted at Daesh command posts, Daesh supplies, Daesh supply routes.” Making a patriotic case for the intervention, Fallon warned that Britain’s international reputation would be damaged if the country did not back the bombing campaign: “That would be hugely damaging obviously to Britain’s reputation across the world, it’s our allies who want us to come and help, France has asked us very directly to send the RAF to help alongside French aircraft,” he said.
“It would obviously damage our reputation internationally and I honestly believe it would leave us less safe than we are at the moment.”
The SNP’s Deputy Leader Stewart Hosie insisted the SNP were still in listening mode, but said theGovernment were failing to make the case: “Unless they have they plan – which not just the SNP but one that many people want to see – to avoid the anarchy of Libya, then of course we couldn’t possibly support conflict in the current climate.”
“The one thing that Syria doesn’t lack is people dropping bombs on it – Jordan, UAE, Russia, Turkey, France, any number of sides in this multi-faceted Syrian war,” he added.
“We are yet to be convinced that the UK flying a few a more sorties in Raqqa is going to make any significant difference.”
Nato general Sir Richard Shirreff warns air strikes on Syria are useless
The National View: Jeremy Corbyn has power to stop air strikes before they happen
Carolyn Leckie: Principles in short supply in the ranks of Labour
George Kerevan: Cameron’s ‘send in Biggles’ attitude will do nothing to solve the terror of Daesh
Former residents of Daesh stronghold Raqqa tell of fears UK bombs could kill loved ones left behind
Kevin McKenna: Tales from the dark side are really not so far, far away
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