Even in the Prime Minister’s absence, all senior Labour MPs who are also members of the Privy Council have been invited to a confidential No 10 briefing tomorrow on the strategy.
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Jeremy Corbyn is set for a showdown with his own shadow cabinet over Syria air strikes, which could see resignations among the ranks if the Labour leader refuses to compromise.
Ahead of a potentially explosive meeting of the shadow cabinet, Diane Abbott said “the party as a whole” is opposed to the bombing and “looking to Jeremy to show leadership”.
“As such, we would urge MPs to learn the lessons of the past, and not to vote for extending air strikes over Syria”, he said.
“I hope you are”, Corbyn said.
He had said he would only call a vote when confident of victory.
Mr Corbyn is now expected to give the party’s MPs a free vote on the issue. “There are some issues, like going to war that should be above party politics and I think we are moving to a situation where, hopefully, in all parties on issues like this, a moral conscience should be above the whip as well”. The rebellious MPs persuaded Corbyn that MPs were to have a free vote, which means party whips will not be able to influence their decision.
A meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, a large proportion of which is believed to be considering backing military action, will then follow the shadow cabinet gathering.
In a defiant interview on Sunday, Mr Corbyn said he alone would take the final decision, having last week revealed he was unconvinced by the Prime Minister’s case for launching airstrikes.
Bombing IS targets in Syria would be a “distraction from the political process” to end the civil war, and would lead to civilian casualties, he insisted.
“The problem about a free vote is it hands victory to Cameron over these airstrikes, it hands victory to him on a plate”.
It is no coincidence that the row is about military action, the most sensitive issue for Labour since former leader Tony Blair led Britain into supporting the United States in Iraq on evidence that was later hotly disputed.
A Number 10 spokesman said discussions were under way within government on the wording of a draft motion, but they stressed that there was so far no timetable for it to be put before MPs.
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”.
Mr Corbyn told the Andrew Marr show at the weekend one of the reasons he is against airstrikes is because he has serious doubts about David Cameron’s claim that there are 70,000 moderate Syrian fighters on the ground to take on IS.
The Stop the War coalition, which Corbyn formerly chaired, say that giving MPs a free vote would “undermine” the Labour leader’s power. The decision will be made on Monday. Hove MP Peter Kyle yesterday told the Westminster Hour programme that he had made up his mind and that “the whip is irrelevant to me now”.
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Jess Phillips told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: “If the Labour Party as a collective group of people can not have a consensus position on this, that is very, very lamentable”.
