Corbyn to meet shadow cabinet on Syria

Prime Minister David Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat in 2013 when opposition from Labour MPs blocked military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and is expected to call a vote only when he is sure of winning.

He admitted it would be harder to get support if Labour ordered its MPs to vote against air strikes.

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 number could rise to 115 as an internal Labour revolt sees a number of party MPs go against its leader, Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to not back the strikes. “I will make up my mind in due course”, he told the BBC.

But asked whether the whipping position would be a collective decision by the shadow cabinet, Mr Corbyn said: “It is the leader who decides”.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, Tom Watson, the deputy leader, and Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, all want Mr Corbyn to give his MPs a free vote.

The Campaign for Socialism, a left grouping within Scottish Labour, has urged Mr Corbyn to call a whipped vote “to ensure that David Cameron can not win a vote to launch United Kingdom airstrikes”.

The results, which were still being analysed by staff last night, will be presented to meetings of the shadow cabinet and Parliamentary Labour Party being held today.

In an article for Huffington Post, Mr McCluskey – who backed Mr Corbyn’s leadership bid – made clear he thought the Prime Minister’s plan to extend airstrikes from Iraq to Syria was “illegal and irrational”.

Britain is already involved in air strikes against IS jihadists in Iraq but has not so far taken part in bombing the group’s positions in Syria.

“Look what will happen if we bomb Raqqa”, he added, claiming there would be huge civilian casualties if the city – a center of operations for ISIL – was hit.

Shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer confirmed there were “significant differences” within the shadow cabinet.

The Labour leader is facing the prospect of a shadow cabinet revolt if he whips the vote in the Commons, which could take place within days.

He said: “This is not about the internal politics of the Labour Party, this is about the internal security of our country”.

“I think it is incredibly important for us not to turn this into a question and debate about the inner workings and mechanisms of a shadow cabinet, which is 30 people sitting round a table in the bubble of Westminster”.

What is a free vote?

But “Jeremy will be speaking for majority Labour Party opinion, he will be speaking on the basis of Labour Party policy and he will be speaking as the elected leader of the Labour Party elected with a landslide no previous Labour leader could possibly enjoy”.

He said: “Backbench MPs are even calling on him (Mr Corbyn) to quit for having the temerity to maintain his values and principles, with one even comparing him disgracefully to a ‘fuhrer”.

“After the week that we’ve had, the best way of holding the party together, but allowing MPs to solemnly express what they feel, is for us to have a free vote”, he told the Independent on Sunday.

“I think it will have the opposite effect”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One programme MPs should be given a free vote on any air strikes against Islamic State militants based in Syria.