The prime minister is seeking the formal approval of the cabinet for airstrikes against Isis targets in Syria ahead of a 10-hour debate in the Commons on Wednesday, in which the government is almost certain to win a majority for military action.
Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to allow Labour MPs to have a free vote on whether to bomb targets in Syria will hand David Cameron a “guaranteed majority” in parliament, the former shadow home secretary David Davis has said.
The cabinet will be asked to agree to the scrapping of the weekly session of prime minister’s questions to allow the prime minister to open the debate at midday with the vote scheduled to take place at 10pm.
Corbyn will set out his opposition to the bombings when he replies to the prime minister. But Labour divisions will be highlighted when Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, who supports the bombing, winds up for Labour at about 9.30pm. Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, is expected to conclude for the government.
Davis, who will be among a small number of Conservative MPs to vote with Corbyn in opposing airstrikes, said the Labour leader’s decision to allow his MPs to have a free vote has guaranteed the prime minister victory.
The former shadow home secretary told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “The thing that has triggered this has been Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to have a free vote on this, Labour party disunity. However you want to put it, that’s what’s given David Cameron a guaranteed majority. He [Corbyn] is new politics in at least one sense: he is giving everybody the right to [have a] say. Frankly, to be honest, this is a matter of life and death. You can’t whip an issue like this.”
The Tory whips are confident that they have substantially reduced the number of Tory rebels who voted against airstrikes against Bashar al-Assad in August 2013 to well below 20.
The Tory rebels are likely to be strongly outweighed by as many as 60 Labour MPs who are prepared to vote in favour of airstrikes.
But Clive Lewis, a shadow frontbencher who is a strong Corbyn supporter, warned that Labour MPs who vote with the government will face reprisals if the airstrikes lead to more terrorist attacks. Lewis told the Today programme: “If there are members of the PLP that want to bomb in Syria and vote with the Tories, then on their heads be it.
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