Britain to vote on Syria strikes this week, PM confident of support

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) stands behind Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, as Prime Minister David Cameron stands in front of former Prime Minister John Major at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph in central London, November 8, 2015.

A spokesperson for Corbyn, a veteran anti-war campaigner, said: “By refusing a full two-day debate, David Cameron is demonstrating he knows the debate is running away from him, and that the case he made last week is falling apart”.

Louise Haigh, a Labour opponent of air strikes, had earlier said that she was told by a national security adviser that the politics of more than 40 percent of that figure were of questionable origins.

The Stop the War Coalition campaign group has set up a Facebook event as Prime Minister David Cameron’s called for a parliamentary debate tomorrow.

“I can announce that I will be recommending to Cabinet tomorrow that we hold a debate and a vote in the House of Commons to extend the air strikes”, Cameron said in a televised statement.

This is because Cameron wanted to make sure there is time for a full day’s debate on the potential military action on Syria. The new Labour Chief Jeremy Corbyn rejects air strikes in Syria, but he has removed the group discipline of its members.

Cameron had committed not to initiate a vote before he believed he had secured a majority, thereby avoiding the fiasco of 2013.

The House of Commons is today expected to authorise air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria, at the end of a debate scheduled to last more than 10 hours.

If the measure is approved in Parliament, British military operations are expected to start shortly afterward.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was now “confident” that most MPs would support air strikes when there was a vote.

Corbyn, who has granted his MPs a free vote on the matter, appeared on the BBC to call on his shadow cabinet to reconsider supporting intervention.

Secondly, there are questions about how effective airstrikes can be in a situation where there is insufficient ground forces to secure territories held by IS.

Corbyn now faces being opposed by his own senior party colleagues, including the shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, when he speaks against intervention in the parliament.

The climbdown was seen at Westminster as a crushing humiliation for the Labour leader – who was reportedly shouted at by shadow ministers – after he made clear at the weekend he would decide whether the party’s MPs would be whipped or allowed to vote with consciences.

The government has been trying to build support among lawmakers for military action before calling the vote in Parliament.

In a further sign of the rift, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has written a letter to Mr Cameron accepting that there was a “compelling case” for military action.