May faces new Labour ambush over air strikes
THERESA May will today face fresh pressure to guarantee parliament a vote before ordering any further air strikes against the Syrian regime.
Speaker John Bercow last night granted Labour an emergency debate on the need for parliament to approve all future military action – except in emergency situations.
Labour is expected to push the issue to a vote. But there were few signs Jeremy Corbyn would win tory MPs’ backing for any measure to tie the Prime Minister’s hands.
It came as Mrs May yesterday denied she had ordered air strikes because of pressure from the US, saying: ‘We have not done this because President trump asked us to do so.’ the Prime Minister
‘It was the right thing to do’
added: ‘ We have done it because we believed that it was the right thing to do.’ In a three-hour statement to MPs, she set out the case for joining allied air strikes against the Syrian regime, saying it was ‘legally and morally right’.
Jeremy Corbyn faced cries of ‘shame’ when he suggested Mrs May fast-tracked the missile attacks to avoid a parliamentary vote.
And Mrs May rolled her eyes when he told MPs: ‘the Prime Minister is accountable to this Parliament, not to the whims of the US President.’
Mrs May received the overwhelming backing of tory MPs yesterday. But she came under pressure to rule out further military action without a parliamentary vote.
former chancellor Kenneth Clarke said he supported the strikes and the Government should consider similar action in the future ‘if anyone is so foolish as to repeat chemiwhen cal weapons attacks’. But he called for rules to set out the circumstances in which the Government could act without parliament’s approval. fellow tory John Baron said MPs should be consulted before future military action.
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn faced a backlash from his own party last night after suggesting he would never allow military action on humanitarian grounds alone.
Labour MPs rounded on him after he said the air strikes were ‘legally questionable’ without the prior approval of the United Nations. russia has vetoed a string of UN resolutions proposing tougher action against Syria. former Labour minister Chris Leslie suggested Mr Corbyn was ‘ turning a blind eye to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian dictator’.
Meanwhile, some of Mr Corbyn’s closest allies joined a 300- strong demonstration outside Parliament by the Stop the War Coalition, including justice spokesman richard Burgon and emma Dent Coad.