Labour splits over Syria bombing vote exposed at stormy meeting of MPs

Split: Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London today
Neil Hall/Reuters
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Labour Party divisions were dragged further into the open today as Jeremy Corbyn condemned a “rush to war” — while shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn insisted air strikes were needed.

The unprecedented public split in the party’s high command was echoed at all levels, with threats of deselections being made by Left-wing activists against MPs backing military action.

Stop the War, the pressure group Mr Corbyn formerly chaired, announced it would demonstrate outside his HQ tonight in protest at his bowing to pressure to allow a free vote of MPs in tomorrow’s debate.

Mr Corbyn’s leadership was under its gravest strain yet after a stormy meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party last night, where he faced open defiance by backbenchers and criticism from grandees, including former deputy leader Dame Beckett. The PLP meeting, where Mr Benn was loudly cheered by MPs, ended a disastrous day for Mr Corbyn in which he lost a battle with the shadow cabinet, conceding the free vote.

On BBC Radio today Mr Benn said: “I have reached the conclusion that we need to take this [military] action be-cause there is a clear and present threat from Isil/Daesh. When the UN Security Council passes unanimously ... a resolution which calls on all member states that are able to take all necessary measures to deal with the threat, I think we should take that very seriously.”

Air strikes call: Hilary Benn MP Glenn Copus
Glenn Copus

He did not fully deny that he had been prepared to quit if Mr Corbyn tried to impose a collective vote against war.

“I wasn’t planning to quit my job,” he said. Asked about speculation he could be a caretaker leader, he added: “I have no interest in leading the Labour Party. I’m doing my job as shadow foreign secretary to the best of my ability.”

Fear of deselection bids was stoked by shadow energy minister Clive Lewis, an ally of Mr Corbyn, who warned: “If there are members of the PLP that want to bomb in Syria and vote with the Tories, then on their heads be it.”

During the PLP Dame Beckett rebuked the leadership for trying to bounce the shadow cabinet. “That was outrageous,” she said, according to MPs. “We cannot unite the party if the leader’s office is determined to divide us.”

Ken Livingstone has refused to back down after saying on BBC Question Time that the 7/7 bombers “gave their lives”. There were attacks on his comments at the PLP, with MP Jack Dromey demanding: “How dare Ken Livingstone say what he said? How can this man still have a role in charge of Labour’s defence review?”

Mr Livingstone said today: “No. I simply told the truth. Everybody knows who saw the website they left that they had actually gone to kill Londoners and give their own lives in order to do that because of our involvement in Iraq.”

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