David Cameron will stage a Commons vote on Wednesday on whether to extend UK airstrikes against Islamic State targets to Syria, meaning that RAF crews could be bombing the Isis headquarters in Raqqa by the end of the week.
Cameron was finally freed to take the military step he has wanted since last summer after the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, agreed at a bitter shadow cabinet meeting on Monday to give his MPs a free vote on the issue.
The Conservative chief whip, Mark Harper, had sought permission from opposition parties to stage a debate in which the Labour party’s divisions will be exposed. Corbyn will express his longstanding opposition to airstrikes at the outset of the debate, and the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, will offer his broad support at the end.
About 60 Labour MPs support airstrikes, enough to ensure the prime minister has a Commons majority of more than 100. The relatively quick timetable for staging the vote will upset Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, a supporter of airstrikes, since he is pressing No 10 to delay in order to answer Labour MPs’ continuing doubts.
Cameron said: “The decision to take military action is one of the most serious a prime minister can make.”
He said: “Tomorrow, I will be recommending to the cabinet that there be a debate and vote in the House of Commons on a motion to participate in coalition airstrikes against Isil [Islamic State] in Syria.
“Isis poses a very direct threat to the United Kingdom – and as we have already seen in Iraq, British airstrikes can play a key role in degrading them; but they are only part of a comprehensive strategy for Syria.
“This strategy must include the international community working together to find a political solution to the turmoil in Syria; a continuation of our extensive humanitarian efforts; and a clear commitment to post-conflict reconstruction of Syria.”
Cameron acted after another day of Labour infighting,which ended with Corbyn forced to abandon plans to enforce a three-line whip against airstrikes, a decision that would have triggered mass resignations of senior frontbenchers.
Before the shadow cabinet meeting, one of Corbyn’s closest political allies, Diane Abbott, the shadow international development secretary, publicly argued for a three-line whip, saying a free vote would only hand victory to Cameron. Her remarks reflected growing confidence in parts of the Corbyn camp that opinion among Labour MPs was shifting against airstrikes.
The Corbyn team also produced a sample from a weekend party survey showing 75% of Labour members were opposed airstrikes. But some of Corbyn’s team insisted issues of war should be treated as a matter of conscience.
Before the lunchtime shadow cabinet meeting, Watson convinced Corbyn that threats of mass frontbench resignations were not a bluff and he had to concede a free vote.
In return, Corbyn demanded the shadow cabinet also agree to a statement that party policy was to oppose airstrikes and that this was in line with the motion on Syria agreed in September by the party conference.
But Corbyn’s planned compromise fell apart as it was rejected by shadow cabinet members, who claimed that such a deal both misinterpreted the motion and would leave MPs exposed to activists’ attacks for spurning party policy.
The shadow home secretary, Andy Burnham, led the criticism, saying he was not willing to accept a deal that was designed to stoke pressure on MPs. He accused Corbyn of trying to run “a sham shadow cabinet” in which the Labour leader took decisions behind the backs of his colleagues.
At one point, the leader’s office suggested that details of how party policy should be interpreted be left to a later meeting between Benn and Corbyn. The suggestion led to the shadow cabinet insisting they would not leave the room until a collective agreement had been reached.
Benn, asserting his right to express his views, said he would feel forced to speak from the backbenches if Corbyn continued to insist that the party’s preconditions for supporting airstrikes had not been met.
Even opponents of airstrikes told Corbyn that they were fed up with being bombarded by messages from groups such as Momentum, the campaign set up by Corbyn’s supporters.
The attacks on Corbyn’s office continued at an evening meeting of Labour MPs, when the veteran former cabinet minister Margaret Beckett said: “It is not possible for the party to be united when the leader’s office is seeking to divide us.”A Corbyn aide said only “a small minority” of Labour MPs were unwilling to accept his leadership, and insisted the majority of MPs and party members opposed the war.
In an acknowledgement of the scale of doubts on the Labour benches about bombing Syria, Watson wrote to Cameron saying that the prime minister’s assertion that there are “approximately 70,000 Syrian opposition fighters on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups” had been widely challenged.
He added: “There are many MPs who understand that a transitional government in Syria can only come about if Isil forces no longer hold territory. But they are yet to be convinced that there is a meaningful political process in place that can pull together the disparate groups who will need to sign up to it if there is to be a lasting peace.”
Watson also asked Cameron to give an assessment and his view on the Saudi initiative to draw together opposition groups in Syria, including how the involvement of the conservative groups Arar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam affected prospects for peace.
Where the shadow cabinet stands on airstrikes
Against airstrikes
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party
John McDonnell, shadow chancellor
Jon Trickett, shadow communities secretary
Diane Abbott, shadow international development secretary
Ian Murray, shadow Scotland secretary
John Cryer, chairman of the parliamentary Labour party
Nia Griffith, shadow wales secretary
For airstrikes
Tom Watson, deputy leader
Angela Eagle, shadow first secretary of state and shadow business secretary
Hilary Benn, shadow foreign secretary
Heidi Alexander, shadow health secretary
Lucy Powell, shadow education secretary
Chris Bryant, shadow leader of the house of commons
Vernon Coaker, shadow northern Ireland secretary
Michael Dugher, shadow culture secretary
Undecided
Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary
Kate Green, shadow women and equalities minister
Kerry McCarthy, shadow secretary for environment, food and rural affairs
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