“In the view of the opposition on a matter of such critical importance there must be full and adequate time for any debate in the house and only a full two-day debate would ensure time for all members who wish to participate to be able to do so”.
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Andrew Marr asked Corbyn whether his heart was set against bombing Syria, and Corbyn replied “there is nothing wrong with my heart except for wanting a peaceful world”.
But a spokesman for Corbyn told IBTimes UK on the morning of 30 November, just hours ahead of the scheduled shadow cabinet meeting, that he had not decided on whether to let his parliamentary party vote with their conscience or not.
After a tense shadow cabinet meeting on Thursday, Mr Corbyn – a vice-president of the Stop the War pressure group – made clear he would not support any bombing.
Jeremy Corbyn is to offer a free vote to MPs on David Cameron’s proposals for United Kingdom to bomb Isis in Syria but will make it clear that Labour party policy is to oppose airstrikes.
“Obviously there are strong views on both directions”. We have had long discussions about this at the weekend.
“No decision has been made on [whipping the vote] yet”.
A survey ordered by Mr Corbyn received 107,875 responses, of which 64,771 were confirmed as full individual Labour Party members. The poll has been criticised as an attempt to use his grassroots powerbase to “bounce” the shadow cabinet into submitting.
“My view about the membership of the Labour Party is that they must have a voice”, he said.
The veteran MP, who was a regular rebel on the backbenches, said: “I understand dissent, I understand disagreement from leadership. I’m enjoying every moment of it”.
Rylance said bombing IS could ultimately strengthen the group: “I fear we may be playing right into what they want – bombing more civilians and therefore helping them recruit more desperate young men with no other way in responding in their grief than by fighting back”.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond indicated that, if MPs voted for air strikes, more war planes would be deployed to the region to support the RAF Tornado GR4s already attack IS in Iraq.
Over 70,000 people are said to have responded to the email consultation, issued last week, which asked members and supporters whether they agreed with strikes on Syria and whether they had any comments.
The process for removing a Labour leader is complex and Corbyn has a huge mandate from activists, making any challenge to him problematic.
“However, I think the party and increasingly the public would be disappointed if we didn’t oppose these air strikes to the limits of our ability”.
“We’ve had adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan”, he added, referring to Britain’s role in previous conflicts.
One shadow cabinet minster has told me there’s a chance Labour will not agree a position on Monday at all and will wait for the wording of the government’s motion before deciding how to vote.
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The immediate point of contention is over “whipping”, the question of whether Corbyn will order the Labour Party’s 231 lawmakers to vote against David Cameron’s plans or whether he will grant his colleagues permission to vote freely.
