The Labour MP John Woodcock has asked Jeremy Corbyn to give MPs “the same individual freedom and responsibility he demanded for himself as a backbencher” after comments by the Labour leader from 2013 emerged calling for a free vote on military action in Syria.
Corbyn repeated on Thursday that he would not allow a free vote on extending air strikes from Iraq to Syria, despite calls from backbenchers to allow MPs to vote against party policy. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has previously said that the issue of airstrikes in Syria should be left to a free vote “on the basis of conscience”.
Speaking in parliament in 2013, during a debate to mark the 10th anniversary of the war in Iraq, Corbyn said that “on something so fundamental as the deployment of armed forces, a free vote is the right thing to do”.
The Labour leader, who was a backbencher at the time of the debate, said there needed to be a vote in parliament before any armed forces were sent to Syria. “Some people think that whipping, lobbying and pressure are the only things that matter in politics, but, quite honestly, we are sent here as representatives of our constituencies,” said Corbyn.
“We all have a conscience that we have to live with and decisions that we have to take. At the end of the day, an MP cannot blame anyone else; it is his or her own decision and vote, and the record will stand.”
The Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, asked Corbyn if he agreed that MPs “need to be voting from our conscience, not from the whips’ list?”
“Absolutely,” responded Corbyn. “On something so fundamental as the deployment of armed forces, a free vote is the right thing to do. Many have said it is easy to send other people’s sons and daughters off to die and then hide behind a veneer of party loyalty, but the issue is much bigger than that.”
Woodcock, an outspoken critic of the Labour leader, said on Friday: “I have never seen the case for a free vote put more eloquently than by Jeremy in his 2013 speech. As a man of principle I am sure he will reflect on this and grant to Labour MPs the same individual freedom and responsibility he demanded for himself as a backbencher.”
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