A senior Conservative MP has said David Cameron should have apologised and retracted the remarks accusing Jeremy Corbyn of being a “terrorist sympathiser”that he made before last month’s Commons debate on Syria.
James Gray, a member of the Defence committee, said the prime minister “should be more careful in his use of language. If it had been me, I would have taken the earliest opportunity simply to withdraw it and to apologise for any offence caused.”
He made the comments in a letter seen by the Guardian to a constituent who had raised concerns about Cameron’s use of the phrase. Distancing himself from the prime minister’s comments, Gray added: “Of course, people [who] are opposed to the extension of the airstrikes against Daesh and Iraq into Syria are not ‘terrorist sympathisers’.”
The North Wiltshire MP voted for airstrikes in Syria last month, explaining that he had “a great deal of concern” about the conflict and admitting that “there are strong arguments from both sides”.
In a public statement outlining the reasons for his vote, Gray said: “We are not ‘going to war with Syria’. We are at war with Daesh, and it is they who have declared it.”
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