Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn not to favour United Kingdom air strikes in Syria

Francois Hollande on Friday urged British MPs to back air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria “in solidarity with France”, in a tight vote expected early next week.

Corbyn is vehemently opposed to military involvement in Syria, whilst many in his shadow cabinet are in favour.

The leader’s consultation on what the United Kingdom should do comes amid speculation that politicians could vote on the issue next week.

With the vast majority of the shadow Cabinet in disagreement with their leader on air strikes, Corbyn faced yet more criticism yesterday when it emerged that a survey had been emailed out to hundreds of thousands of Labour members and supporters asking for their views on Syria.

However Mr Watson backed shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn – who was reportedly briefed by intelligence chiefs on the threat from IS – who said there was a “compelling” case for extending RAF airstrikes, now restricted to Iraq, into Syria.

Jeremy Corbyn has emailed Labour Party members to ask whether they think Parliament should vote to authorise airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria. I do accept the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party. “I think it actually will bring Britain and France and the world together in defence of our values and recognising that we will never let these people beat us, indeed we will come together and make sure that we beat them”.

But staunch Labour Party member Chris Burke, who joined the ranks exactly 40 years ago when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, and his City of Lincoln colleague Karen Lee each agreed that calls for Mr Corbyn’s resignation were totally wrong at this time.

Mr Rylance, film-maker Ken Loach and comedian Frankie Boyle were among signatories to an open letter handed in at Downing Street urging Mr Cameron to keep British forces out of the air war on Syria.

After setting out his case for action, Cameron appeared to have persuaded at least two of the 30 party “rebels” who voted against him in 2013, but other opposition lawmakers said he had yet to answer questions about how the bombing would achieve peace.

“Ground troops are absolutely central to any success and their absence is one of the reasons we rejected military action”. 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.

The Royal Air Force is part of a U.S.-led coalition attacking IS militants in Iraq, but not in Syria.

But because of the disarray in the Labour Party over airstrikes, the Government is still uncertain about when the Syria motion will be put to MPs.

A commons vote is expected to be held on the issue.

But the research by Survation for the Daily Mirror found the remainder are undecided – and 59% believe the move would increase the risk of terrorist attacks in the UK.