Corbyn Surveys Labour Party Members Over Syria Air Strikes: PA

The Stop the War Coalition organised the event as David Cameron gave his strongest indication yet that he will call a vote on British airstrikes in Syria despite Jeremy’s Corbyn’s opposition to action.

“I firmly support the action President Hollande has taken to strike IS in Syria”, Cameron said afte talks in Paris.

The details will be explained “in the discussions we will be having with members of parliament right across the House of Commons”, Mr Cameron said.

Addressing a press conference in Malta this afternoon, Mr Cameron said the North African country needed a unity government that the worldwide community could work with.

He has opposed air strikes in Syria, which has threatened to tear apart the shadow cabinet, with senior Labour front benchers threatening to resign if Corbyn forces them to side with him.

DAVID Cameron yesterday signalled towards a vote within days on British air-strikes in Syria, as Labour division and confusion worsened over the issue.

The petition has received some 34,000 online signatures to date as European governments consider armed intervention against Islamic State following the November 13 Paris attacks for which it claimed responsibility. “We should not question the brilliance of our forces; they prove that time and again and will go on proving it”.

But a number of shadow cabinet ministers are concerned that Mr Corbyn and his team want to rally support for an anti-war amendment – which could be backed from MPs across the political spectrum – in an effort to outflank their support for RAF bombing raids.

Endorsing the idea of a free vote, Mr McDonnell said the “horrendous mistake” of the Iraq war had been partly due to MPs being “whipped and threatened and pushed” into supporting “something many of them did not believe in”. Labour leaders are set to meet on Monday, where they are set to decide whether it will be a free vote.

“Surely we must recognise that in a democracy the Labour party has a very large membership, almost 400,000 members, they have a right to express their point of view and MPs have to listen to it, have to try to understand what’s going on in the minds of ordinary party members”.

Labour figures have reportedly sought legal advice on how to oust Mr Corbyn as leader – and stop him standing again – less than three months after he was elected to succeed Ed Miliband.

Mr Corbyn said no decision had yet been taken on whether Labour MPs would be given a free vote.

“I do not believe the Prime Minister’s current proposal for airstrikes in Syria will protect our security and therefore can not support it”, Corbyn told party colleagues in a letter sent Thursday evening. Fallon has been briefing Labour MPs over the weekend to win their support in a Commons vote.

He highlighted his statement to parliament last week in which he described a “comprehensive” strategy for dealing with IS and ending the civil war in Syria, including global diplomacy to establish a “transition” from president Bashar Assad.