‘PUBLIC opinion and anti-war mobilisation stopped Cameron’s last push to war on Syria and we need to stop the Tories again,’ a Stop the War Coalition spokesman told News Line yesterday.
He was responding to Cameron’s interview with US TV network NBC. Cameron said Britain is committed to working with the US to destroy the ‘caliphate’ set up by Islamic State militants ‘whether it is in Iraq or in Syria’.
Stressing his willingness to work with the US, the UK prime minister told NBC: ‘I want Britain to do more. ‘I’ll always have to take my parliament with me. We’re talking and discussing at the moment, including with the opposition parties in Britain, what more we can do. But be in no doubt, we’re committed to working with you to destroy the caliphate in both countries.’
MPs voted against proposed military action in Syria two years ago. The Stop the War spokesman said Cameron’s interview was ‘one more indication that the Tories are pushing for a new war on Syria. The reality is there’s already been bombing raids without reference to parliament and behind the backs of the British people.’
Labour leadership contender, Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘I would not support the bombing of Syria. What I would support is choking off arms supplies and finances for ISIL, further support for the refugees and the development of some kind of wider peace process. Bombing will not solve it.’
Labour MP, Diane Abbott told the Andrew Marr Show yesterday that after the 2013 vote Cameron told MPs: ‘I get it, we don’t want intervention in Syria.’ Downing Street has confirmed that Cameron was aware of the Syria missions flown by UK aircrew embedded with US and Canadian forces. Abbott added that ‘people have registered that’, adding, ‘I don’t think that means we’re going to war yet but I fear we will.’
On the revelation that RAF pilots had taken part in bombing raids over Syria without a new vote, both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for an explanation in Parliament.
Alex Salmond, now SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman in the House of Commons, said that ‘the case for bombing in Syria has simply not been made’. He warned: ‘Past interventions and extensions of military action could at best be described as counter-productive, and at worst have helped to replenish the dark well from which terrorism springs.’
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon is set to make a statement to MPs today. New Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said he was ‘deeply worried’ by the tone of Cameron’s ‘IS narrative’. ‘What we ought to be doing is to get behind the Muslim communities in that region and supporting them through diplomatic means,’ Farron added.