He said that although the issues are complex, the question they face is not.
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Shadow foreign secretary Hillary Benn’s niece Emily Benn has demanded a retraction from SNP MPs who suggested her grandfather, left-wing stalwart Tony Benn, “must be turning in his grave” over his son’s pro-war stance.
The hard-left MP, who voted against extending RAF airstrikes to Syria last night, also claimed Mr Benn’s words were similar to former prime minister Mr Blair’s speech before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But Salmond claimed Benn’s father, who famously opposed the Iraq War, would have thought otherwise.
The success of Iraqi strikes, the funding of Daesh, and Turkey’s purchasing of barrels of oil remain a key concern for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who continued to make the case to pull back from military intervention, despite giving his members a free vote.
Sheffield MP Angela Smith said Labour MPs were moved to tears by the extraordinary speech, which she described as “moving” and “immensely powerful”.
“It is about to become the House of Commons “where were you when Kennedy was shot” moment”, Labour-supporting journalist Dan Hodges wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
Hilary Benn’s contribution to the House of Commons’ debate on airstrikes ended in a round of applause from lawmakers on both sides of the chamber – a highly unusual display from Members of Parliament.
Addressing his party directly, Benn said: “We must now confront this evil. It is now time for us to do our bit in Syria, and that is why I ask my colleagues to vote in favor of this motion tonight”.
Asked about Hilary Benn’s speech he said: “His father, whose speech I heard in the Iraq debate all these years ago, and I was sitting in virtually the same place, would be birling in his grave hearing a speech in favour of a Tory Prime Minister wanting to take the country to war”.
His speech sparked calls from voters for Mr Benn to replace Mr Corbyn as Labour leader, with bookies slashing the odds on him taking charge of the struggling party.
“Not just their calculated brutality but their belief that they are superior to every single one of us in this Chamber tonight and all of the people that we represent.
They hold us in contempt. They hold our values in contempt. They hold our belief in tolerance and decency in contempt”.
“They hold our democracy, the means by which we will make our decision tonight, in contempt”.
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In an interview in 2013, he said: “If we went to war on the basis of a lie, we need to bring the liars into court so we can then prosecute them for them”.
