MP slams Syrian air strikes
MP Liz McInnes has criticised the Prime Minister’s decision to launch air strikes on Syria without consulting Parliament.
A series of strikes were launched by the US, UK and France on Friday, in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
Three waves of overnight strikes destroyed infrastructure at sites connected with the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons programme.
Announcing the operation, Prime Minister Theresa May said there was ‘no practicable alternative to the use of force.’
There is no legal requirement for Prime Ministers to consult parliament before ordering intervention, but the decision not to give MPs a vote has been met with criticism from some.
Ms McInnes, whose Heywood and Middleton constituency includes Norden, Bamford and Castleton, tweeted on Saturday: “Many constituents have contacted me asking me to say to the PM #notinmy nameTeresaMay. Yet the PM is recklessly going ahead without a debate in Parliament, denying my constituents their voice #SyriaCrisis #Democracy.”
She was one of several Greater Manchester’s Labour MPs who criticised the decision.
Ashton-under-Lyne, Droylsden and Failsworth MP Angela Rayner, who said MPs were ‘frozen out’ of the decision.
The MP wrote: “Whatever views individuals hold, surely MPs from all sides of parliament should have been given the opportunity to debate and vote on such a dramatic course of action by our minority government?”
There were also criticisms of the timing of the raid, which came just a day before the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was due to carry out a factfinding mission in the country.
In a blog post, Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, said that while the PM hadn’t acted outside her powers, parliament should have been asked for approval before any intervention took place.
He wrote that in not doing so, Theresa May had ‘broken the convention’ that since Iraq had seen Prime Ministers consult parliament before authorising action.