MPs last night voted to extend British air strikes against Islamic State (IS) into Syria, with 397 voting in favour and 223 against. The first strikes have already been launched.The vote was preceded by a lengthy and heartfelt debate which took up most of the day. Here's what we learned from it.Bogus Battalions?
MPs who were not pacifists but still opposed the strikes in many cases did so because of their doubts about how many ground troops the international coalition could rely on to defeat IS. Since sending a significant western force is currently out of the question, those who make the case for bombing, including David Cameron, have claimed that we can call on regional troops. Cameron says there are 70,000 "moderate" ground troops in the region. But yesterday some doubt was cast on this. Cameron himself admitted for the first time that many of these troops are not "ideal partners." Some of his opponents went further. Julian Lewis, the Conservative chair of the Defence Committee, said that these were "bogus battalions;" he said that experts had told him many regional forces were sectarian, localised, and largely uninterested in helping to defeat IS. Labour's Yasmin Qureshi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said her visits to the region suggested there were only about 15,000 troops. This question will become crucial as the efficacy of strikes is assessed in the coming months.
Division or democracy?
Jeremy Corbyn's decision to allow a free vote on the strikes has averted any immediate collapse of his party or his leadership. But the fact remains that 66 of his MPs—including 11 members of his shadow cabinet—voted with the government and against him. For all that his supporters try to spin this (they point out that a large majority of Labour MPs supported the leader) it's a big rebellion and higher than previous estimates, which hovered more around the 40 mark. In isolation, perhaps that wouldn't be so bad, but the vote comes a day before the result of the Oldham West and Royton by-election, in which Labour are likely to keep their seat but—some fear—may take an embarrassing hit to the size of their majority. If the election goes badly too, Corbyn is looking at one of the worst weeks of his leadership.
Hooray for Hilary
Hilary Benn, Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary and the most senior opposition supporter of air strikes in Syria, cemented his growing reputation as a champion for the party's centre with a rousing speech condemning IS as "fascists." You can watch it for yourself below:
Benn's stirring assertion of his party as an "internationalist" force went down very well with many MPs disaffected with the Corbyn leadership. John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor and a key Corbyn ally, speaking on
Today this morning issued Benn with a backhanded compliment, praising his rhetoric but then comparing it to that of McDonnell's old nemesis Tony Blair. "Sometimes the greatest oratory can lead us to the greatest mistakes," he said. Benn is often talked about as a potential caretaker—or even permanent—leader in the event of a coup to oust Corbyn, and this speech can only have helped that. He denies any such ambitions.
Bully for you
With the Tories already mired in an ongoing bullying scandal relating to their 2015 election campaign, Labour now joins them. Leftist activists spent the days and hours leading up to the vote pressuring MPs to oppose strikes—not wrong in itself, but in some cases they took it too far. Stella Creasey, the MP for Walthamstow broadly situated on the right of the party but liked and respected across it, was particularly badly hit. She said she had to leave yesterday's debate at one point to check on her staff's welfare after they received abusive phone calls. Other pro-bombing MPs have also complained of abuse. Corbyn and McDonnell have condemned all bullying and abusive behaviour, but they will need to show in the coming days that they can control their supporters and discipline anyone who has crossed the line from passionate debate to threatening behaviour.
Not the Scots
Angus Robinson, Westminster leader of the SNP, managed to get a Scottish independence angle into an answer that otherwise focused on the alleged ineffectiveness of the strikes. He said that 72 per cent of Scots were opposed to strikes, so a decision to launch them would see Scotland taken into a conflict against its will by the UK's other nations. This is similar to the SNP's line on Brexit, which is less popular in Scotland than in England. It remains to be seen how effective it will be in persuading Scots to support independence.
