Corbyn stance could enable tyrant to act withy impunity, MPs told
JEREMY CORBYN’S stance on military action could enable any “tyrant” or “megalomaniac” with the support of an “amoral state” within the UN Security Council to carry out a genocide with “total impunity”, Dominic Grieve has warned.
The Tory former Attorney General said if the Labour leader “persists” on “changing its previous adherence to the previous rule of international law”, then a person intent on carrying out genocide would be able to conduct it.
He said the international rulesbased system would be “dead” in such a circumstance.
Theresa May said she “absolutely” agreed with Mr Grieve.
Mrs May sidestepped calls for a future vote on action, saying that it was “important” the Government is able to act. Labour former Cabinet Minister Hilary Benn told the Commons it was right to uphold the international prohibition on chemical weapons but said: “As someone who supported military action against Daesh in Syria in the vote in December 2015, may I say gently to the Prime Minister that she should have come first to the House before committing our forces to action.”
He asked Mrs May to give an assurance that if Bashar Assad were to use chemical weapons against civilians again that she will “come to Parliament first” and that she “will trust Parliament to decide what is to be done”.
The Prime Minister said: “I recognise the importance and significance of Parliament, and Parliament being able to make its views known on these issues. But it is also important that the Government is able to act and there will always be circumstances in which it is important for the Government to be able to act and for the operational security of our Armed Forces to be able to do so without that debate having taken place in Parliament, there will be circumstances where that is the case.”
She added: “Nobody should be in any doubt, I think, about our resolve that should be there to ensure that we do not see a situation developing where the use of chemical weapons is normalised.” DIANE ABBOTT has come under fire after posting a fake image of a bombing raid in a social media post about the Syrian air strikes.
The Shadow Home Secretary dismissed as “pathetic” the row over her use of the picture.
The Labour frontbencher used the image in a post hitting out at International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who was defending the Government’s refusal to hold a parliamentary vote before launching air strikes in response to the chemical weapon attack at Douma.
Twitter users pointed out that the image used to illustrate her point was a composite showing what a fictional Israeli air strike in Tehran might have looked like, rather than an actual RAF raid on Syria.