David Cameron was backed by a clear overall majority MP’s vote in favour of airstrikes in Syria. With the overwhelm vote Britain will join the coalition of nations conducting airstrikes against Islamic State.
This will be the third big foreign intervention – Libya, Iraq, now Syria – pulling together a wider plan to achieve real peace is a far more complex task, one he acknowledges the UK cannot complete on its own.
Yet by choosing action, that’s a task he faces new pressure to help deliver.
For Labour too though the months ahead will be wracked with tensions that have been wound even tighter by the last few days’ events.
According to the reports, 66 Labour MPs backed the government in defiance of the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. And For Labour the months ahead will be wracked with tensions that have been wound even tighter by the last few days’ events.
In a day of soul searching, recrimination and often heartfelt speeches will be pleased that a majority of his MPs and nearly half the shadow cabinet opposed strikes.
But his foreign affairs spokesman, Hilary Benn, prompted rare applause when he gave an impassioned speech, regarded as the best of the debate, in favour of strikes. “We are here faced by fascists. Not just their calculated brutality, but their belief that they are superior to every single one of us in this chamber tonight and all of the people we represent. They hold us in contempt,” he said.
