Jeremy Corbyn had been forced to back down once before the start of today’s shadow cabinet meeting on Syria, offering Labour MPs a free vote on air strikes against Isis. By the end of the two-hour gathering, he had backed down twice.
At the start of the meeting, Corbyn’s office briefed the Guardian that while a free vote would be held, party policy would be changed to oppose military action – an attempt to claim partial victory. But shadow cabinet members, led by Andy Burnham, argued that this was “unacceptable” and an attempt to divide MPs from members. Burnham, who is not persuaded by the case for air strikes, warned that colleagues who voted against the party’s proposed position would be “thrown to the wolves” and said that he would not be a part of a “sham shadow cabinet”. The vote would be free in name only.
Content from our partners
