The Independent on Sunday can reveal Mr Corbyn has been consulting Labour MPs to see whether they will back a “proposition” laid in the Commons stating that “the Government has not made its case” for extending air strikes.
Advertisement
Several MPs as well as shadow cabinet ministers are unhappy at the “chaotic” nature of Labour’s position on a key issue of national importance.
Signatories including writer John Pilger, SNP MP Tommy Sheppard and comedian Frankie Boyle write: “The current rush to bomb Syria following the awful events in Paris risks a risky escalation which will inflame the war there and increase bitterness against the West. The US has been bombing Isis for a year and admits that Isis is as strong as ever and has continued recruiting”.
The protest comes in response to the Prime Minister’s announcement that he will call a vote in the Commons on Syrian air strikes next month if he expects to win it, even without the backing of the UN Security Council.
The BBC said an unnamed member of Jeremy Corbyn’s “shadow cabinet”, the body whose members follow portfolios mirroring those of the government, had warned people could quit after the Labour leader said he could not support the government’s case for bombing Islamic State militants in Syria.
He said he would not bring the issue to the House if there was a chance of losing, for fear of handing IS a propaganda victory.
This would expose the full scale of opposition to Mr Corbyn among his senior colleagues and allow them to call for MPs to be whipped in favour of military action. “It’s been working in Iraq where we have shrunken the territory of ISIL and it can work too in Syria”.
Stephen Beer, from Christians on the Left, told Premier: “I certainly think we should be having the conversation and I think we should be doing it in a way that gets around this view that you’re either for or against military action, as I think it’s more complicated than that”. Arguing that bombing could not work without boots on the ground, the former London mayor said on LBC radio: “We cannot put British troops on the ground because they are too discredited after Iraq and Afghanistan”.
It exposes a public disagreement with party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who opposes the expansion of strikes sought by Prime Minister David Cameron. But that does not mean all of us take a vow of silence of how we conduct ourselves as a party.
Mr Corbyn, who is adamant air strikes would be a mistake, is outnumbered in his Shadow Cabinet by as much as five-to-one.
Cameron has urged parliamentarians to vote in favor of British military intervention in Syria. I think that is a very separate matter.
Our correspondent adds: “His opponents suspect him of trying to bypass the parliamentary party, and appeal directly to the members who elected him in such numbers in September, before he returns to face Labour’s shadow cabinet on Monday”.
“That doesn’t imply to me that there was discipline…”
“We have a shadow cabinet, we have collective responsibility, this is not the way to go about things”.
Advertisement
A Survation poll yesterday found 48 per cent support for immediate action, compared to 30 per cent of people opposed.
