Labour conference demands tough criteria for any Syria strikes

David Cameron and Michael Fallon have previously signalled they will ask Parliament to reconsider the “illogicality” of Britain conducting strikes against IS targets in Iraq, but not Syria.

Delegates at Labour’s annual conference in Brighton overwhelmingly supported the motion calling for MPs to “oppose any such extension” unless four conditions are met.

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The criteria are: “clear and unambiguous authorisation” from the United Nations; an EU-wide plan to offer “humanitarian assistance” to refugees; a promise that only IS targets will be attacked, not the Assad regime; and that “any military action is subordinated to international diplomatic efforts”.

“Conference believes that only military action which meets all these objectives, and thus avoids the risk of repeating the disastrous consequences of the 2003 war in Iraq and the 2011 air campaign intervention in Libya, can secure the assent of the British people,” the motion reads.

Unite, Britain’s biggest union, proposed the motion and its representative told the conference hall: “Now is not the time to blunder into a new war, another illegal war.”

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, is opposed to extending the airstrikes but said he would give Labour MPs a free vote on the issue.

RUSSIAN ACTION

The news comes after Russia carried out its first strikes in Syria against Islamic State targets.

The Kremlin indicated it would not authorise the use of ground troops in the country but would use its air force “in order to support the government Syrian forces in their fight” against the jihadist group.

But Mr Corbyn was sceptical of the action, saying there had to be a political solution between “at least all the non-Isil forces as a starting point for going forward”.

"I’m not sure Russia will solve the problem if it’s only taking action on behalf of the Syrian government because presumably they are going to be bombing anyone that they assume to be opposed to the Syrian government, including the various opposition forces,” he said.

“It looks to me as though the Russian intervention will actually make the situation possibly even worse," Mr Corbyn told Sky News.

'AS LONG AS IT TAKES’

Earlier Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, said the UK will continue to bomb Islamic State for “as long as it takes”.

Britain has taken part in coalition air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq since 2014, after MPs voted in favour of intervention last September.

The Coalition government was defeated in 2013 however on the motion to intervene against president Assad’s regime in Syria.

David Cameron told CBS news in America yesterday the UK would “work with anyone” in the bid to rid Syria of both its president and the terrorist group.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Mr Hammond said the Syrian people were up against the “twin evils” of Islamic state and incumbent president Bashar al-Assad.

He said the UK “shares a responsibility” to bring the country’s civil war to an end and “banish” Islamic State “from the face of the earth”.

"The UK will continue to be a leading member of the international coalition against Isil, including carrying out more air strikes in Iraq than any other country except the US, for as long as it takes to prevail in what will ultimately be a generational struggle against the Islamist extremist ideology that drives it," he said.