Britain’s Labour in disarray over Syria air strikes vote

In what is the latest attack since Jeremy Corbyn was overwhelmingly voted by party members to lead Britain’s Labour Party in September, some Labour parliamentarians are attacking his stance against proposed airstrikes in Syria, going as far as threatening to resign.

The BBC understands senior government ministers, including Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, will ring Labour MPs over the weekend to press the case for action.

And the letter has angered some who see it as an attempt to pre-empt Monday’s shadow cabinet meeting while appealing over the head of MPs to the grass roots members who swept Mr Corbyn to the leadership.

But yesterday both Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn and Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson said they had no intention of quitting despite both defying Mr Corbyn to support airstrikes.

However, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said shadow cabinet members who disagree with Mr Corbyn’s position will not be resigning.

Outlining his case last week for extending United Kingdom military action from Iraq into Syria, Mr Cameron stressed he would only hold a Commons vote on the issue if he was certain of securing a majority.

Parliament is expected to vote on the issue next week after Prime Minister David Cameron pushed MPs to back the move in the wake of this month’s Paris attacks.

Cameron said if Britain didn’t act after ISIL-claimed attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, the UK’s allies might well ask, “If not now, when?”

Speaking in Malta, where he is attending a Commonwealth summit, Mr Cameron said: “I believe there is a compelling case to take the effective action to keep our country safe”.

The group resumes talks on Monday and David Cameron has said he is awaiting to hear whether he has cross-party support before proceeding any further with a potential vote.

But a Labour List survey of 2,453 supporters found that 63 per cent support the party leader’s opposition to air strikes in Syria.

Deputy leader Tom Watson became the latest leading figure to speak out in support of bombing Islamic State (IS) in its Syrian heartland, putting him directly at odds with the party leader.

It has been reported that a parliamentary vote on military action could take place as soon as next week.

“There shouldn’t be any party discipline on issues like this”.

John Spellar, a veteran of Labour’s fight to expel Militant, told Radio 5 Live: “If anyone should resign after this incident, it should be Jeremy Corbyn”.

“So they might do what they believe to be right but I don’t think they’re going to go on and try to overthrow Jeremy Corbyn because he’ll just be re-elected if they want another election”. Cameron told MPs Britain could not “subcontract its security to other countries”. It’s absolutely right for him to put that view in the shadow cabinet, it’s right for them to discuss it. He wrote Thursday to Labor legislators to say he wouldn’t back airstrikes because Cameron had not set out “a coherent strategy” to defeat the Islamic State.