Cameron To Seek Backing For Syria Airstrikes

Its chairman Andrew Murray urged demonstrators to “stand behind” Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition Labour party and a former Stop the War Coalition chairman, in opposing air strikes.

Other shadow cabinet members are also said to have been swayed by David Cameron’s speech to parliament on Thursday, when he declared: “We must tackle Isis in Syria, as we are doing in neighbouring Iraq, in order to deal with the threat that Isis poses to the region and to our security here at home”. He said he agreed with Putin that the political future of Syria could not be decided by outsiders but only by the Syrian people themselves. Refugees interviewed by the Observer said Isis is keeping civilians as “human shields” and warned about loss of innocent life if a bombing campaign goes wrong. A tetchy 75-minute Shadow Cabinet meeting on Thursday ended with just four of the 30-strong team backing the Labour leader.

“I hope that when the choice comes people will indicate that this is the right thing for Britain to do. We need to resist this brutalising and dehumanising spiral of violence”, the group said on a Facebook page to advertise the event.

But one of the Labour leader’s closest allies in the Shadow Cabinet told The Telegraph that senior figures were putting pressure on Mr Corbyn to hold firm to his anti-war beliefs.

One Labour MP said: “It’s absolutely farcical. It depends whether something happens that could swing it – and that could be either way”.

The demonstrations came amid calls for the United Kingdom to continue strikes against the “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist organization. And he said while ground forces would also be needed, they would not be British.

However, Government Whips believe a number of Tory sceptics have now been won over, and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond have spent the weekend working to convince individual Labour MPs.

“The shadow cabinet will continue its discussions on Monday and it may be that that is where we end up”, he said.

The Fire Brigades Union today chose to re-affiliate to the Labour Party, 11 years after severing links over a pay dispute with the Blair government, a move welcomed by Mr Corbyn as “great news”.

Finance Minister George Osborne, a frontrunner to succeed Cameron, said he understood people’s concerns that further involvement in the Middle East could make Britain a target. “They have got millions of troops”.

Mr Corbyn, who wants members to give their thoughts on the airstrikes by the start of next week, is facing a shadow cabinet revolt over the issue. There are now voices across all wings of the party, from John McDonnell to Tristram Hunt, suggesting we should have a free vote, and I think they are right.

Cameron said: “I have the highest possible regard for the British Armed Forces”. I know as prime minister their bravery, their courage, their professionalism.

These developments, while welcome, must form part of a broader strategy which will be needed to face down the threat from Isil, which, lest we forget, also seems to include Ireland in what it has called a “coalition of devils”.