Hilary Benn, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, is among the vast majority in the front bench team who is in favour of the Government’s plan to extend RAF air strikes into Syria.
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The leader has sent out a survey to members asking for their views on the issue, and urging them to respond by the start of next week.
In the survey, of more than 1,600 voters between 23 and 24 November, 59% of people supported air strikes and only 20% of respondents disapproved of them.
Speaking in Malta in Friday, where he is attending the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, the Prime Minister heavily indicated that he now believes he has the numbers in place to allow a military intervention.
He will hold another Shadow Cabinet meeting on Monday where they party will make its final decision on its position, with David Cameron expected to call a vote on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. “We know they want reassurance that we are getting this right… first of all we are a target from this terrorist organization IS (Islamic State)”, he told BBC radio, referring to the attacks on tourists in Tunisia in June.
Will it make us safer?
As the wranglings over strikes continues in Westminster, an open letter from Syrians in the United Kingdom said strikes alone were not the answer. “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”.
While Mr Campbell is a long-time supporter of Mr Corbyn, the Labour leader also received strong support from North East MPs who backed rival candidates in the leadership contest earlier this year. You are sending people out possibly to die.
With the knowledge that as many as 115 Labour MPs could defy Jeremy Corbyn and back military action, Downing Street is now said to be confident that the vote will pass.
And one outspoken Labour MP, West Midlands MP John Spellar, has suggested that Mr Corbyn might have to resign instead.
Writing to his MPs and subsequently his Shadow Cabinet before an agreement was made, was met with destain from a senior Shadow Minister.
Even fellow leftwinger Paul Flynn admitted the party was in a “terrible mess” and that Mr Corbyn may be unable to carry on as leader.
Asked whether he should stand down, she said: “I think that would be a sensible strategy because I think that the division at the moment is causing real problems”. “Countries all together so it’s not seen as just Western intervention, but I would have no worries about having British troops there”.
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Leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose leftist views are at odds with some of his lawmakers, said military action could have “unintended consequences” – as it did in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
