David Cameron is preparing to take the biggest gamble of his premiership by staging a parliamentary vote on British military action against Isis in Syria this week – despite deep uncertainty over how many Labour MPs will back him and fears among Syrian citizens about loss of civilian lives.
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Some 5,000 people gathered Saturday in central London while holding placards that read “Don’t bomb Syria”, “Drop Cameron, not bombs” and “Don’t add fuel to the fire”.
His comments were in stark contrast to the shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn who said Mr Cameron had set out “compelling arguments” for Britain to join other members of the US-led coalition in extending air strikes against IS into Syria.
He said: “We have to hit these terrorists in their heartlands”.
Cameron’s previous government suffered a humiliating defeat in 2013 over military action against the Assad regime and did not push joining air strikes in Syria to a vote past year, amid resistance from Labour.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the same programme: “I don’t think it (air strikes on Syria) will solve the problem”.
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. Mr Corbyn is also understood to be considering calling an emergency meeting of Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, (NEC), to change official policy – making the party explicitly anti-war.
Fallon said it would be harder to get a majority if the Labour Party ordered its MPs to vote against airstrikes in Syria.
The leader’s consultation on what the United Kingdom should do comes amid speculation that politicians could vote on the issue next week.
And he added: “The military advice and diplomatic advice and the security advice all says that the risks of inaction are greater”. 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.
“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.
The Times newspaper said senior Labour officials and lawmakers had sought legal advice on how to unseat Corbyn in the hope of building support for a plot against him.
And questioned on being forced out by a party coup over the row, he said: “I’m not going anywhere”.
Cameron lost a vote in Parliament two years ago to allow attacks on Syria, and has been reluctant to even suggest another until he could be certain to win.
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With allies of Corbyn warning that critics would face the wrath of grassroots activists unless they fell into line, Watson made clear he had no intention of resigning – pointing out that he also had been directly elected by party members.
