DOES MAY NEED A VOTE?

THERESA May doesn’t need a Commons vote if she decides to go to war in Syria.

She can hardly risk taking a vote on her tattered authority in an unpredictable situation. Labour and the SNP would almost certainly be whipped against military intervention and May might have to rely on Labour rebels to carry the day.

May is not haunted by the Iraq War of 2003 when, despite the biggest rebellion since the Corn Laws, a Labour government won a vote to go to war with Saddam Hussein.

It was the first time the Commons had been given a vote on going to war and many MPs rued their decision.

Iraq set the modern convention for parliament having a say on military action although there was no vote on Libya in 2011, approved retrospectively, or Mali in 2013.

It is the more recent experience of David Cameron’s humiliation in 2013 – when Labour surprised themselves by defeating the government over military action against Assad’s first chemical attack – that will make Downing Street pause and remind the Prime Minister she can bypass MPs by using royal prerogative.

MPs are on recess until Monday and there is no sign of a parliamentary recall being arranged despite opposition calls.

It is unlikely May will risk a re-running that strategy.

MPs will have their say in the Commons, but by then the military mission could be over.