But Corbyn abandoned his plans to speak in the wake of the terror attacks in France, tweeting instead: “Today, all our thoughts and sympathy are with the people of Paris”.
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Corbyn’s silence gave the warmongers days in which they had free rein to set the political agenda.
Benn also refused to say whether he would stay in the shadow cabinet if the Labour leader attended a meeting of the Stop the War Coalition next month, after the group heaped blame on the West for the terror attacks in Paris on Friday.
Mr Hammond said: ” Our discussions in Vienna have been constructive, and there is now momentum behind a process working towards peace for the people of Syria.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Cameron said he would not hold a vote until he knew he had the support of Parliament, saying a government defeat would be “damaging” for Britain’s “reputation in the world”.
It is here that Corbyn’s latest retreat does most damage.
MPs voted against military intervention in Syria in 2013 when the target was President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Labour is opposed to extending United Kingdom airstrikes against Isis into Syria from Iraq but could support a wider strategic action plan as long as it is backed by the global community.
Benn said: “That shocking tweet, it was wholly wrong to say that”.
“I think the key message at the moment has got to be, first of all everything has got to be done to protect our citizens”.
It was not until Monday that Corbyn made any significant statement on Syria in the aftermath of Paris.
There had to be a political solution, he said. This would only be a prelude to a combined military offensive.
Corbyn acknowledged as much when he added, “Of course you can’t really deal with so-called Islamic State unless you get a political settlement in Syria which allows you then to permanently degrade and destroy that organisation”.
But in a round of broadcast interviews, Mr Corbyn told ITV News: “I would only authorise actions that are legal in the terms of global law”.
“Before you even get to the appointed jobs, there are those voted for jobs, so Jeremy needs to think about how it is being perceived and there is an easy way to solve that and that is that we can have an additional deputy who is elected by all women in the party, or all men and women in the party, but is elected to be the additional deputy, who is a woman, so we would have a leadership team of three, of which one would be a woman”. My view is we have to review our foreign policy, review the situation going on in the region and listen to words put forward by [Barack] Obama and [UN secretary general] Ban Ki-moon.
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She told Murnaghan: “It is hard to comment because it is not only a Government decision but they have chose to consult with the Parliament”.
