Labour in turmoil over vote on action in Syria

As many as several thousand people protested in London on Saturday against the possibility of British airstrikes in Syria, as the country’s lawmakers remained divided over the possibility of expanding military intervention in the region.

There was anger among some Labour MPs after Mr Corbyn issued a letter following Thursday’s meeting saying the Prime Minister had failed to make a “convincing case” and that he could not support further military intervention.

Leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was overwhelmingly voted by party members to lead Britain’s Labour Party in September, is being attacked by some Labour parliamentarians for his stance against proposed airstrikes in Syria, going as far as threatening to resign.

BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins says Mr Corbyn’s supporters are “convinced that his views are closer to Labour’s grass roots than those of dissenting MPs”.

While making clear his personal opposition to the extension of air strikes, 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”. ISIS is the threat our nation and other countries are facing – that is why we are contemplating this action.

The French government took the unusual step of expressing the hope that the Royal Air Force “will soon be working side by side with their French counterparts” in taking military action in Syria. “President Hollande and I stood shoulder to shoulder outside the Bataclan Cafe in Paris”, he said on Twitter.

There have been reports that some MPs are plotting to remove Corbyn if it comes to this, having consulted lawyers on whether they could exclude him from the ballot paper in a new contest.

Britain can not wait for a representative government to emerge in Syria and must launch immediate airstrikes to eradicate Daesh, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has said in a statement at House of Commons on Thursday.

David Cameron could bring the question to the Commons as early as Tuesday – but has made clear he will not do so unless he is certain of securing a majority in favour.

The Scottish National Party’s Angus Robertson said his legislators would not support airstrikes without effective ground support and “a fully costed reconstruction and stability plan”. “Yet, this bombing will not stop terror attacks”. You are sending people out possibly to die.

Cameron confirmed Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond would tell opposition MPs about a “comprehensive” strategy for hitting IS and ending the Syrian civil war and with it the rule of president Bashar al-Assad.

Around 5000 anti-war protesters gathered outside Downing Street yesterday.

Shadow global development secretary Diane Abbott insisted the shadow cabinet was not entitled to vote down the leader and said she was confident they would come to the “right decision”.