WORCESTER’S MP says he’s ready to support David Cameron in bombing Syria – after the Prime Minister’s impassioned plea.
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Mr Cameron argued there was a legal basis for intervention for self-defence because of the threat posed by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants at home.
The PM’s statement came hours after he met French president François Hollande in Paris to pay tribute to the victims of the terror attacks.
The Prime Minister set out some of his thinking in the Commons yesterday when he told MPs that although air strikes on their own would not be enough it would be wrong to wait for political progress in Syria before targeting IS.
Where do United Kingdom parties stand on military action?
British politicians are keenly aware of public opinion over whether to launch air strikes on Syria.
“In solidarity with France and in a communal spirit of fighting against terrorism, I can only approve what the British prime minister and the German chancellor have proposed”, Hollande said.
The left-winger has also faced open opposition from members of his shadow cabinet over the Syria issue.
Corbyn’s relations with the party’s more centrist MPs have been strained since he was elected to lead the party in September thanks to a surge in grassroots support due to his strong anti-austerity message.
Labour veteran and Work and Pensions Committee chair Frank Field also said the party “needs an alternative leader” in an interview with LBC Radio on 27 November.
And the letter has angered some who see it as an attempt to pre-empt Monday’s shadow cabinet meeting while appealing over the head of MPs to the grass roots members who swept Mr Corbyn to the leadership.
Warley MP John Spellar claimed the missive amounted to the leader and “his small group of tiny Trots in the bunker” launching a “coup” against the shadow cabinet.
“If anyone should resign after this incident, it should be Jeremy Corbyn”, he said. “He’s the leader of the party and if he wants to write to his MPs saying we shouldn’t do this then he has every right to”.
“They thought they were going away to resume that discussion on Monday”.
Hilary Benn, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has said there is a “compelling case” in favour of taking action.
However, Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet ally Diane Abbott urged the shadow front bench to get behind their leader in any vote.
Along with Mr Corbyn and other senior figures in the party, Mr Benn is a member of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet.
Nevertheless his intervention complicates Mr Cameron’s calculations as to whether there is now a Commons majority in support of air strikes on Syria.
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After setting out his case, Cameron appeared to have persuaded at least two of 30 party “rebels” who voted against him in 2013, and his foreign minister, Philip Hammond, later said the government was now “building a consensus now for military action”.
