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Labour to look 'very seriously' at plan to target Isis in Syria Labour to look 'very seriously' at plan to target Isis in Syria
(about 4 hours later)
David Cameron’s hopes of building a cross-party consensus behind military air strikes against Islamic State forces in Syria have received a boost after Labour said it would look “very, very seriously” at any government proposals to expand the bombing beyond Isis targets in Iraq. David Cameron’s hopes of building a cross-party consensus behind military air strikes against Islamic State forces in Syria were boosted after Labour said it would look “very, very seriously” at any government proposals to expand the bombing beyond Isis targets in Iraq.
Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, said everything must be done to stop the “horrifically oppressive” Isis, after Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, confirmed to MPs that the government was assessing whether to expand the aerial bombing to targets in Syria. Fallon told MPs that the government would seek the approval of MPs before the current air campaign was extended. Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, said everything must be done to stop the “horrifically oppressive” Isis, giving hope to Conservative interventionists who know that Labour votes would almost certainly be required to ensure there was a Commons majority in favour of extending the scope military action.
She was speaking after Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, confirmed to MPs that the government favoured expanding the largely symbolic aerial bombing of Isis targets in Iraq to Syria.
Fallon said: “There must be a full-spectrum response to deal with Isil [Isis] at its source in places such as Syria, Iraq and Libya. We know that Isil is organised and directed from northern Syria.”
The defence secretary also said that the government would seek the approval of MPs before the current air campaign was extended from Iraq. But that approval was unlikely to be sought until the autumn, by which time Labour will have elected a new leader.
Cameron’s official spokeswoman said there was a need for “more thought, more deliberation, more time” before any decision to extend military action was taken. “The PM has long thought that Isil poses a threat to Britain and Isil needs to be destroyed in Syria as well as in Iraq,” she added.
Fallon tried to assure sceptical Tory MPs that any bombing campaign would not provide succour to the regime of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, even though a weakening of Isis might be expected to benefit his regime . Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has not tried to stop the US-led air campaign against Isis in northern Syria.
The Conservative chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, Crispin Blunt, and the chairman of the defence select committee, Julian Lewis, both voiced doubts in the Commons. Blunt said UK involvement in northern Syria would make no practical difference to the US-led campaign that has been under way for months. Lewis said the government had to choose whether Assad or Isis was the lesser of two evils, adding there was no good outcome to be had.
Cameron was scarred by his failure in the summer of 2013 to win Commons support for a bombing campaign against Assad to punish the Syrian leader for using chemical weapons on civilians, a vote that was lost after the prime minister failed to win over the support of Labour’s former leader, Ed Miliband.
The prime minister has made clear to ministers that it would be pointless to call a vote without clear Labour support. Cameron’s 12-seat majority means he is vulnerable to losing a Commons vote if a handful of Tories rebel.
However, Labour sees a new request to bomb Isis forces in northern Syria as analogous to its existing support for targeted RAF air strikes mainly involving Tornado GR4 aimed at reining in Isis in Iraq.
Harman told ITV News: “[Isis] brutalise people, they murder people and they are horrifically oppressive. So everything that can be done to stop them must be done, and any proposals that the government bring forward which will help tackle the growing horror of [Isis], of course we will look at them very, very seriously.”Harman told ITV News: “[Isis] brutalise people, they murder people and they are horrifically oppressive. So everything that can be done to stop them must be done, and any proposals that the government bring forward which will help tackle the growing horror of [Isis], of course we will look at them very, very seriously.”
Fallon, who said on Wednesday that it was illogical to limit the air strikes to Isis targets in Iraq when the organisation was based in the Syrian city of Raqqa and did not recognise international borders, spoke in a Commons debate on international security as the government tested the water for an expansion of the military campaign. Government sources are talking of “pitch rolling” – the process of testing the ground for a change in strategy – to see whether Labour would support a change of course. Fallon said the RAF had flown nearly 1,000 missions, and 300 air strikes in Iraq had taken place.
The prime minister, who was badly burned when Labour helped to thwart his plans to join the US in launching air strikes against Bashar al-Assad in 2013, has made clear to ministers that it would be pointless to call a vote without Labour support. Cameron’s 12-seat majority means he is vulnerable to losing a Commons vote if a handful of Tories rebel. Moderate Syrian forces also want coalition forces to impose a no-fly zone in Syria, preventing Assad from using barrel bombs and to provide arms, something Britain continues to resist.
Labour said that it would look seriously at a government proposal to expand the bombing campaign to Syria in light of the suspicion that the Tunisian gun attacks may have been directed from inside Syria. But Vernon Coaker, the shadow defence secretary, made clear that Labour would not offer unconditional support. Vernon Coaker, the shadow defence secretary, made clear that Labour would not offer unconditional support. He told MPs: “The situation is totally different today compared with 2013, and we do no service to the country – or to anyone – if we are not clear about the difference between 2013 and 2015.”
Coaker told MPs: “We are all horrified by what has happened in Tunisia and by the growing threat that [Isis] poses. We must tackle this threat to our citizens, both at home and abroad. We stand ready to work with the government to defeat [Isis] and will carefully consider any proposal that the government decide to bring forward.
“We all need to be clear about what difference any action will make to our objective of defeating [Isis], about the nature of any actions, its objectives and indeed its legal basis. Any potential action must command the support of other nations in the region, including Iraq, and the coalition already taking action in Syria. This is time for a considered assessment of the best course of action we can take to defeat this deadly threat to the UK, an objective that unites us all across this House.”
Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, highlighted the unease on all sides of the Commons at the prospect of a expansion of the bombing when he challenged Coaker, saying: “Unless I am very much mistaken [you] are preparing the ground to move the Labour party’s position to support air strikes in Syria.”Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, highlighted the unease on all sides of the Commons at the prospect of a expansion of the bombing when he challenged Coaker, saying: “Unless I am very much mistaken [you] are preparing the ground to move the Labour party’s position to support air strikes in Syria.”
The shadow defence secretary told Salmond: “If the military advice, or the intelligence advice, is that there is a headquarters directing terrorism across the world from parts of Syria and that people are conducting terrorist activities and killing British citizens who are on holiday on the directions of people in northern Syria – it would be right and proper to consider that and then to take whatever action was felt appropriate to deal with it. That is not the same thing as saying to the government it doesn’t matter what you say, we will support you.” The shadow defence secretary told Salmond: “If the military advice, or the intelligence advice, is that there is a headquarters directing terrorism across the world from parts of Syria and that people are conducting terrorist activities and killing British citizens who are on holiday on the directions of people in northern Syria – it would be right and proper to consider that and then to take whatever action was felt appropriate to deal with it.
Fallon told the pre-arranged Commons debate on international security that Isis was directed and led from northern Syria and directing attacks in other countries. He vowed that if there was any decision to include air strikes in Syria as part of a full spectrum response, the government would seek the approval of parliament. “That is not the same thing as saying to the government it doesn’t matter what you say, we will support you.”
“Our position remains that we would return to this House for approval before air strikes in Syria,” he said. “We will only bring a motion to this House on which there is some consensus.”
Fallon said Islamic State was “an evil caliphate that does not respect state boundaries”, adding that opinion might have changed in parliament since the 2013 vote.
He continued: “We are clear any action we take must not provide any succour to Assad’s regime.”
He described last Friday’s attack on tourists in Tunisia as “a day of terror that meant the world we are living in has become a darker and more dangerous place”.
He said nearly 1,000 missions and 300 air strikes had taken place against Isis targets in Iraq, and 325 UK troops were in Iraq helping the government deal with IEDs.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman stressed that British military assets were already flying over Syria, and British forces were helping to train members of the Syrian Free Army outside Syria.
Cameron’s spokeswoman said MPs needed to think about what more could be done to protect British people in the wake of the attacks on tourists in Tunisia last week.
She stressed that the prime minister had long thought there was a case to do more in Syria, saying the murders last week underlined the scale of the threat posed to British people by Isis.
But she added there was a need “for more thought, more deliberation, and more time”, pointing out that parliament would go into recess in the middle of July. She said military strikes would be legal under international law due to the threat posed by Isis to the British people.
The timetable suggests Downing Street will wait to see who is elected Labour leader on 12 September at the earliest before making any specific proposal to the Labour party.
Cameron’s stance suggests one of the new leader’s first tests will be to decide whether to back further action in Syria.