Syria

Wednesday

James Forsyth

There are two strong reasons why the UK should join Syrian airstrikes

There is a war in Syria already. Islamic State’s headquarters in Raqqa are already being bombed on a regular basis. These facts are all too frequently forgotten in our debate about whether to extend airstrikes against Islamic State to Syria. But that we would not be the first country to strike Raqqa is not a reason to sit on the side-lines. To my mind, there are two particularly strong reasons for the UK joining the coalition attacking IS in Syria. The first is our obligations as an ally. Post the Paris attacks, the French President has made a direct plea for our help. Imagine how we would feel if Islamic

Sebastian Payne

David Cameron will be kicking himself for calling Corbyn and co ‘terrorist sympathisers’

Today’s debate and vote on airstrikes in Syria has already descended into name calling. At last night’s meeting of Conservative MPs, David Cameron reportedly urged his party to vote for the airstrikes because: ‘You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers’ It’s a line that echoes the Tories’ prior attacks on Corbyn as a threat to Britain’s national security, as well as and the Prime Minister’s accusation in his conference speech this year that the Labour leader ‘hates’ Britain. On a day which was set to be about ideas and arguments, and not personalities, Cameron’s remarks have provided ammunition for Corbyn and his New

Tuesday

Nick Cohen

Corbyn has done enough damage to Labour. It’s time for him to step down

Jeremy Corbyn is a rarity among politicians. All his enemies are on his own side. For the Tories, Ukip and the SNP, Corbyn is a dream made real. They could not love him more. As the riotous scenes at the shadow cabinet and parliamentary Labour party meetings this week showed, his colleagues see Corbyn and John McDonnell as modern Leninists who are mobilising their cadres to purge all dissidents from the party. Conversations with Corbyn’s aides show a gentler side to the new regime, however. They suggest the Corbynistas are unlikely to be able to control Labour MPs when they can barely control themselves. ‘Chaos’ was the word that came

Karwan Jamal Tahir

For us Kurds, Western intervention is a lifeline

In Kurdistan, we have had reason to be grateful for Western intervention. Last June, Daesh captured one third of Iraq overnight and then attacked us. What saved us was swift Western airstrikes, partly from British forces. Now we ask for your help again. We have a border of 650 miles with Daesh. We have pushed them back and recently captured Sinjar – the scene of medieval rape, sexual enslavement and genocide against the Yezedis. Once again, Western airstrikes were vital. Our liberation of Sinjar cut the main supply road between Mosul and the Daesh ‘capital’ of Raqqa – but Daesh can use other roads. We cannot defeat them without international

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s approach to the Syria vote is making a mockery of its MPs

MPs are currently in a cross-party briefing with a number of Cabinet Ministers about tomorrow’s vote on Syria. The Home Secretary, the Foreign Secretary, the Defence Secretary and the International Development Secretary are leading the briefing. Number 10 is very keen to show that MPs have had every opportunity to ask questions, with the Prime Minister’s statement on the Strategic Defence and Security Review last Monday referring to the need for action, as well as his statement in the House on Thursday on his plan for British involvement in air strikes. In that second session, he took questions from 103 MPs. The government has also tried to make it as

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Government publishes Syria motion

In the past few minutes, the government has published the following motion on action in Syria, which you can read below. The Leader of the House Chris Grayling has announced a change to the Commons business which will see PMQs cancelled and this motion debated for 10 hours. The Cabinet today held what the Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman described as a ‘very serious’ discussion, with 20 frontbenchers speaking in favour of the motion. Significantly, when asked whether those present had discussed the question of who the 70,000 moderate opposition forces are, the spokeswoman said ‘that was not a focus of the discussion’, adding ‘it was not a point that was

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tom Watson asks Cameron to delay Syria vote

The biggest problem with Labour’s furious and seemingly endless infighting is that it is preventing the party from doing its job of scrutinising the government. The Shadow Cabinet are largely scrutinising their leader and one another, which makes it easier for David Cameron to be vague about certain aspects of his case for war. But today, Tom Watson has written to the Prime Minister demanding a delay in the vote and clarity on two key points. They are: 1. The detail behind Cameron’s claim that there are ‘approximately 70,000 opposition figures on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups’. 2. A timeline for peace and arrangements for a

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Jeremy Corbyn isn’t destroying Labour: backstabbing is

First things first: there is no force in Heaven or on Earth that could induce me to vote for Jeremy Corbyn and his sad brand of sixth-former state socialism. In fact, as someone who believes in freedom and growth, the idea of ever giving my beloved ballot to the illiberal, eco-miserabilist Labour Party, regardless of who’s leading it, fills me with horror. Or is it mirth? It’s one or the other. And yet, despite my Corbynphobia, and my humane desire to see dying Labourism put out of its misery, I increasingly find myself shaking my head in something like fury at Corbyn’s Labour critics. They accuse him of destroying their

Sebastian Payne

Hilary Benn on Labour’s Syria split: ‘People of principle can reach different decisions’

Tomorrow, Labour will try out something curious during the Commons debate on airstrikes in Syria. The opposition side of the debate will be opened by Jeremy Corbyn, who will argue against airstrikes, and later closed by Hilary Benn, who will make the case for them. This may sound all very dynamic and different but there is a simple and important question ordinary folks will be wondering: what is Labour’s policy on Syrian airstrikes? On the Today programme, the shadow foreign secretary said he is in favour of the strikes because ‘there is a clear and present threat from Isil Daesh’ and called for respect from the opposing sides within Labour – possibly in response

Monday

James Forsyth

Cameron says that the Commons will debate Syria strikes on Wednesday

David Cameron has just said that the Commons will debate extending air strikes against Islamic State to Syria on Wednesday. Given that Cameron has repeatedly made clear that he wouldn’t bring the issue back to the Commons unless he was confident he could win a vote with a clear majority, this must mean that he calculates that Labour granting its MPs a free vote means that he now has the numbers he needs. Speaking from the Cabinet Room, Cameron argued that this ‘was the right thing to do’ as the UK’s allies had asked for this country’s help and because Islamic State does not respect the Iraqi / Syrian border,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn free vote decision calms Labour frontbench – for now

Jeremy Corbyn seems to have left Shadow Cabinet meeting with a reasonable result, given the warfare in the Labour party over the past few days. It was what one frontbencher describes as ‘rather lively’ and others felt was ‘totally embarrassing’, but the agreed position is that there will be a free vote, a call for a two day debate and that official party policy will be that set out by the Labour party conference. This is the statement on the matter: ‘Today’s Shadow Cabinet agreed to back Jeremy Corbyn’s recommendation of a free vote on the Government’s proposal to authorise UK bombing in Syria. ‘The Shadow Cabinet decided to support

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is Hilary Benn about to become Labour’s very own Aung San Suu Kyi?

Labour’s shadow cabinet meeting is now over, with members scuttling past a hungry pack of journalists in Portcullis House without comment. Frontbencher sources seem to think that Corbyn told his shadow ministers that they could take their own line but not speak in the Commons about that line if it contradicted the party line (confused? Welcome to the Straight Talking Honest New Politics). This would potentially mean that Hilary Benn can’t speak in the Commons as shadow foreign secretary if he decides that what he said last week was a ‘compelling’ case worth supporting. Party sources suggest that this would make him the Aung San Suu Kyi of Labour, which

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

I’ve changed my mind about where we should bomb…

Just back after a few weeks away in the north east – thought I’d share this with you. I wrote a piece for The Sunday Times arguing against bombing Syria for a host of reasons – I will list them all in another blog tomorrow. Suffice to say I don’t think it will do any good, even if it might cheer us up. I also suggested that given the threat to us is largely internal, ie from domiciled Muslims who have been (weary sigh) ‘radicalised’ – we would be as well off bombing Luton as Syria. BBC Three Counties Radio took exception. They sent some poor sap of a reporter

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn grants Labour MPs a free vote on Syria

The Shadow Cabinet is now holding its (delayed) meeting on Labour’s stance on Syria, and members have been told that they will get a free vote on the matter. Sources say that Jeremy Corbyn will also ask David Cameron to delay the vote, which is expected on Wednesday, in order to respond to MPs’ concerns, and that the party will still take a position that frontbenchers won’t necessarily have to follow. This is a way of avoiding the mass resignations and fury that Shadow Cabinet members were threatening. But it is also a sign that Labour as a party no longer falls within the accepted definition of a political party.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour claims 75 per cent of members oppose air strikes in Syria

Just minutes before the crunch Shadow Cabinet meeting about the Labour stance on air strikes in Syria, the party has released figures showing an overwhelming majority oppose UK bombing in Syria. This is the statement: 75 per cent of Labour Party members responding to weekend consultation oppose UK bombing in Syria A sample of this weekend’s consultation of Labour Party members, carried out in response to an email from Jeremy Corbyn, issued Friday 27th November, has shown that 75 per cent of Labour party members who have responded oppose UK bombing in Syria. 107,875 responses were received of which 64,771 were confirmed as full individual Labour Party members. The remainder

Richard Galustian

Putin knows what he’s doing in Syria. Cameron is just flailing

When MPs vote this week on Syria, they will have to decide whether intervention is right in principle. But there is another question: Will air strikes actually make a difference? As a defence and security contractor who has spent much of the last few years in Libya, I have serious doubts whether anything can be achieved without boots on the ground. The combined use of all the countries’ air forces alone will never eradicate ISIS anywhere without a coordinated ground effort. Putin understands this: Russia is making airstrikes while letting Assad’s Syrian Army mop up on the ground. By contrast, Cameron’s proposed involvement seems pointless and meaningless. He wants to

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

As we fret about Syria, the Islamic State is moving into Libya

What is it about war that makes normally sensible politicians prone to hype and exaggeration? No10 is today briefing that Cameron has instructed the RAF to ‘decapitate’ the leadership of the Islamic State in Syria – as if the thought hasn’t occurred to the Americans, who have spent the last 17 months (and $11 million-a-day) bombing Isil positions in Raqqa. ‘We’ve got to go out and kill the bastards,’ the Prime Minister is quoted as saying. An admirable sentiment: the Islamic State is as barbarous a group the Middle East has ever known, so there should be no qualms about striking it. The only problem is whether we do so as an act

Nick Robinson

The debate about Syrian airstrikes already feels hackneyed

Two years ago, just a few days after the Commons opposed airstrikes on Syria, I read another memorable phrase to David Cameron. It was what President Putin’s spokesman had been saying about Britain in private — ‘a small island no one pays attention to’. I have had the sense ever since that the Prime Minister has been haunted by the remark. I expect MPs will change that next week when they back RAF attacks on IS targets in Syria. However, so much else in this debate already feels wearily familiar. Backers of airstrikes will call opponents of them ‘appeasers’. They will respond by labelling their opponents ‘warmongers’, while armchair generals will head

Sebastian Payne

John McDonnell: Ukip is ‘an evil force within our society’

John McDonnell spoke at a Momentum curry dinner in Oldham yesterday evening, following a day on the doorstep ahead of Thursday’s by-election. I was lurking at the back and there weren’t many other journalists there. The shadow chancellor raised expectations for Labour holding onto the seat, as well as telling Momentum activists that the party has to defeat Ukip, who are seen as the most likely challengers, because it is an ‘evil force within our society’: WATCH 1/3 John McDonnell at Momentum curry dinner: #Ukip is “an evil force within our society” https://t.co/H8qzcmrQ1S — Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) November 29, 2015 ‘There are some within the party, and in the media in particular, who are

Saturday

Ed West

There’s nothing ‘conservative’ about supporting foreign intervention

These are the Arab countries the Foreign Office currently advises it is safe to visit: Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Jordan. Call this list A. These are the Arab countries the Foreign Office currently advises avoiding travel to, or to some regions at least: Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, the Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Call this list B. Anyone notice a pattern here? Answer at the end. I have to admit to not having a clue whether we should be getting involved in Syria. For the first time yesterday morning I listened to Radio 4 and felt there to be a sort of right-wing bias to it,